Wild Creature Data Survey System

July 17, 2009 - PRLog -- Scenario
In recent years, as the conservation consciousness raises, more and more countries are planning to build up the comprehensive websites and databases to effectively control the distribution of the domestic wild flora and fauna; therefore, the data can be shared by the various related departments for the use of analysis, conservation plan and other value-added applications.
   
In Taiwan, Endemic Species Research Institute under Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan, is the institute in charge of assisting government in promoting biodiversity conservation, survey, research and promotion affairs. To catch the international trend, the institute planned to build up a standard system for exchanging and offering data; with the aid of internet technology, an application system can be created for the purpose of data sharing and internet distribution. As a result, "Biodiversity Geographic Information System" is built up by Web 2.0 architecture in which "Wild Creature Data Survey System" is one of the crucial parts for field survey purpose.

 
Challenges  
The jurisdictional area of Endemic Species Research Institute covers entire Taiwan. Thus it is very important to have a survey system equipped with GPS position, data management and powerful capabilities of operation and processing for surveyors when they are doing field survey with great amount of data in such a huge area. In conclusion, to effectively cope with the difficulty in surveying in a wide area is a very urgent issue.

In addition, system stability, future function expansion and whether the system can successfully be deployed to multiple mobile devices are the top priority for the institute, too. Moreover, how to effectively overcome this difficulty mentioned above is the essential issue that developers should pay attention to.

 
Goals
"Wild Creature Data Survey System" is developed to facilitate surveyors to effectively create data, manage map and position on the mobile device with the easy-to-use user interface. Moreover, the institute is planning to manage data in a centralized way by uploading data to the server. Therefore, the system should adopt the easiest way to upload data to the server, allowing users to rapidly upload data. After the system is developed completely, to deploy the system to mobile devices in great numbers and to reduce the deployment cost to the minimum are also the main tasks of the project.

 
Solutions
SuperGIS Mobile Engine is used as the core of developing "Wild Creature Data Survey System." With the various GIS components provided by SuperGIS Mobile Engine and the highly flexible development mode, developers can easily develop mobile GIS applications meeting users’ needs, and the expansion of the applications will not be restrained. Another strength of developing with SuperGIS Mobile Engine refers that the developed mobile GIS applications can be deployed to mobile devices supporting .NET CF in large quantities with less cost, effectively reducing the costs of the application deployment.

SuperGIS Mobile Engine is a SDK based on .NET CF, so the developers can develop under Microsoft® Visual Studio 2005 development environment. All the customization tools and programs can be fully transplanted to operating platforms such as Windows Mobile Edition, Windows Tablet Edition and Windows XP through installing tools.

 
Results
"Wild Creature Data Survey System" is the system for filling in and submitting field data. The surveyors can collect data fast by using this system installed in PDA while doing field survey. The filling in and submitting system allows users to download data from the server or upload the survey result to the server through synchronization with the server. In this way, the additional cost of keying in hard-copy survey data by hand can be reduced, greatly improving efficiency. In addition, some of the surveyors get used to the traditional hard-copy survey. In order to meet their needs, the system is also planned to input data to web version filling in and submitting system so that the survey result can be integrated to the server.

Using SuperGIS Mobile Engine as the development core, the system applies the highly flexible development environment provided by SuperGIS Mobile Engine to customize various needed toolbar buttons, forms and many other functions.


The functions provided by the system can be divided into five categories:

1. Various map manipulation functions are provided, such as zooming in/out, panning, full extent, and so on.

2. Map Position: Users can use buildings, landmarks or coordinates to quick position map to the extent where users are interested. Or users can utilize the GPS receiver to display the related map information with the users’ positions as the map center.

3. Switch and Manage Map: Through the manager interface, users can not only manage the display of feature layer but also can switch the display mode.

4. Survey Data Management: In the aspect of data surveying, filling in data to PDA might be inconvenient for users. In order to decrease the inconvenience, the system adopts drop down menus for data input, reducing the inconvenience of hand-writing. Besides, to improve the convenience of inputting, as long as the GPS settings are set ready by users, the system will mark the user’s current position on the map. Whenever the user discovers the surveying species, he/she only needs to switch map to the filling data tab, and the system will automatically input the current coordinate information to the corresponding field. Thus, the user can fill the survey data at any time without pressing buttons.

5. GPS Management: An easy-to-set GPS setting interface is provided for users to rapidly set up the GPS device. Also, through querying current GPS signals, users can understand the receiving status of GPS satellite signals.

The surveyors can collect and record data in the most effective way with the easy-to-use interface, GPS function, and full functioned architecture of "Wild Creature Data Survey System." Besides, surveyors can bring maps of larger area and more data of flora and fauna with them by storing the data in the high-capacity storage cards without affecting the system performance. In the field, surveyors can rapidly position and collect the coordinates through Bluetooth GPS; additionally, surveyors can effectively build up the detailed spatial and attribute data using the express filling in and submitting system. When the survey is finished, the surveyors can upload the collected data to the server through the data manager tool to effectively and centrally manage data. As to the other related departments, they can download data through the server and make the best of the survey data.

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