Skip to content
finwave Docs

Populations

What you’ll learn

Section titled “What you’ll learn”
  • What a population represents in finwave
  • How populations are created and managed
  • How population membership works
  • How populations relate to organizations and encounters

What is a population?

Section titled “What is a population?”

A population in finwave represents a defined group of individuals of a species that researchers study and track over time. It is the primary organizational unit for all data — encounters, individuals, annotations, and analyses are all scoped to a population.

A population typically corresponds to a real-world study population: bottlenose dolphins in a specific bay, humpback whales in a breeding ground, or orcas in a particular region. The population defines the species, the geographic scope, and the catalog of known individuals.

Creating a population

Section titled “Creating a population”

Any registered user can request to create a new population. The request includes basic information about the species, location, and purpose of the study. A system administrator reviews and approves the request.

Once approved, the requesting user becomes the population’s first administrator and can begin configuring settings, inviting members, and uploading data.

Joining a population

Section titled “Joining a population”

Every population on finwave is listed at /populations — the populations index page. Each card shows a state badge in the top-right corner indicating your current relationship to that population, plus a primary action button driven by that state.

The four states

Section titled “The four states”
BadgeWhat it meansWhat to click
🟢 MemberYou’re already a member.Open population — switches your workspace into it.
🔵 Open to joinThe population accepts public sign-ups; no admin approval needed.Join population — one click and you’re in.
🟠 Request to joinAdmin-gated: an administrator has to approve you.Request to join — opens a short form for an optional message.
⚪ Request pendingYou’ve already submitted a request and it’s awaiting review.Disabled. Wait for the admin to respond.

What happens after submitting a request

Section titled “What happens after submitting a request”

For request-gated populations, the population’s administrators receive a notification with your message. They review and either approve (you become a member with a Viewer role by default) or reject. You’ll get an email either way. If you don’t hear back within a few days, contact the population administrator directly — there’s no auto-escalation.

Other ways to become a member

Section titled “Other ways to become a member”
  • Direct invitation — a population administrator adds you. You’ll receive an email and the population shows up immediately under “Your populations” in the workspace switcher (top-left of the sidebar).
  • Role assignment — when an administrator adds you (via invite or by approving a request), they pick a role: Viewer, Expert, Professional, or Administrator. See Roles & Permissions for what each role can do.

Switching between your populations

Section titled “Switching between your populations”

Once you’re a member of one or more populations, the workspace switcher in the top-left corner of the app lets you flip between them. Almost every screen in finwave is scoped to the active population, so the switcher is the single most important navigation control.

Population membership and roles

Section titled “Population membership and roles”

Every member of a population has one of four roles: Viewer, Expert, Professional, or Population Administrator. These roles determine what the member can see and do within the population. See Roles & Permissions for the full breakdown.

Population settings

Section titled “Population settings”

Population administrators configure the population through the settings interface, which includes modules for general settings, individuals management, ML configuration, data access, public pages, community management, and more. See Population Settings for a full guide.

How populations connect to the rest of finwave

Section titled “How populations connect to the rest of finwave”
  • Encounters are submitted to a population and contain the raw photographic observations
  • Individuals are cataloged within a population and identified across encounters
  • Organizations contribute data to populations but are managed independently
  • Analyses (discovery curves, composition breakdowns, capture histories, social networks) are all scoped to a single population
  • ML models are trained and evaluated per population
Section titled “Related”