The app reflects the powerful data products available from the NAFI website that are already used extensively across projects and programs in the north of Australia to monitor savanna burning programs and bushfires.  Fire scars are displayed representing remotely sensed burnt areas coloured by the month of the fire, as are thermal hotspots detected from an array of satellites. These data layers are presented in an intuitive mapping interface with a small selection of base maps, location and compass direction functionality.  Hundreds of thousands of hotspots are rendered seamlessly using a heatmap algorithm, and the app works both in real time and has offline capabilities, so that it can work even when you are out in the field.

This app brings the most used fire information resource for land managers in Australia to your phone, allowing you to keep a constant eye on bushfire threats. As a pastoralist, grazier, indigenous ranger, conservation scientist or member of the public, you can view maps of recent fire activity (hotspots) and burnt areas (fire scars) provided by the North Australia and Rangelands Fire Information (NAFI) service.

You can read more about the launch of the app in our blog here.

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This allows for users to automatically track the duration, location and type of work volunteers undertake, an ID card service to show they’re an approved member of a legitimate volunteer essential service and be provided discounts. It also allowed support for the Brigade Captains and Local Government officers to obtain statistics around the volunteering efforts of their Brigade.

In the midst of this build was the spread of CoVid-19. This new situation, with all of Gaia Resources staff working from home did not impact the delivery and the App was delivered as required.

The mobile app was written for both the Android and iOS operating systems; with infrastructure mounted in Amazon Web Services (AWS). A Django backend was created to house the submitted data and a web frontend to allow senior Brigade staff to add, retrieve and edit data as required. You can read more about our partnership with AWS in this case study.

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Read more about the project via our blog.

The post NSW DPIE – BioSys appeared first on Gaia Resources.

In the first version, the Slug Sleuth app is designed to record sightings of the Giant Pink Slug within its known range. In future, the app will also allow users to record sightings of the two most commonly encountered snail species. Data collected using this app will help environmental managers, land managers and the community learn more about the distribution and habitat for this threatened ecological community, and assist the implementation of long term conservation strategies.

All data submitted via this app will ultimately be made available through BioNet, NSW’s corporate biodiversity data repository. BioNet data is accessible to researchers, land managers, government agencies and the public via the BioNet website and the SEED portal. The app is available for both Apple and Android devices.

Of special interest to Gaia Resources is that this app is developed to submit data to the NPWS BioSys repository. BioSys is an open-source, standards-based data management system built specifically for biological data. The system has a flexible data schema model that allows users to create a schema specific to the structure of their data, and that can apply to just about any sorts of biological and ecological data. It was initially developed in collaboration with Paul Gioia and DBCA biodiversity informatics staff.

Other apps developed on the BioSys platform and recently released include I Spy Koala, also for NSW DPIE.

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This free application-as-a-service approach allowed us to build a form and mapping capability based on a specific questionnaire to capture observations of black cockatoos of various species roosting or feeding in trees in the Perth and Peel region. Data is collected and stored through an easy-to-use Google Sheet approach that the client can manage into the future. The app was successfully deployed and is now being used to capture valuable data to support Birdlife Australia’s future land management decisions.

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The design allowed for multiple projects to be available via a single app login so that volunteers could choose to participate in any project. Each project had an independent data schema and the app would check in to the schema server on startup to ensure the latest schema was in use. This saved users from having to update the app in some circumstances when schema changes were made.

All projects allowed for ad hoc observations of the target taxa to be recorded. The Flying-foxes also provided for foraging species to be noted from a controlled list, and a ‘map view’ of all project records to date. Frogs and Beneficial Insects additionally provided a timed survey component that required additional training to be taken online in order for that functionality to be unlocked for each trained user.

Images and recordings associated with each record were also able to be uploaded, to aid the researchers in validating the identity of the taxon being observed, via the curation component in the backend.

Importantly, additional projects can be added to the app over time using the flexible schema server model.
For example, in 2019 a major Possum and Glider project covering all Australian species was added to the Urban Wildlife app. This was also significant as it was a project arising in a sister NESP project – the Threatened Species Recovery Hub.

Key Outcomes

• Observations, map views and survey components could be flexibly added to any project
• Multiple projects with independent data schemas in the app
• Single point of registration and login
• Offline record creation and upload once back online
• Admins can mark users as trained via the server backend to ‘unlock’ survey functionality in the app
• Simple curation/validation and full data download in CSV format available via admin backend

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As a small business that specialises in consulting to other organisations, Gavin Jackson CRM has to have a system that supports their workflows, has minimal establishment and ongoing costs, and delivers a high degree of value, so that they can remain competitive and lead the way in their field.

Our approach was to work with the team to understand their business before we then provided a fully costed approach to the development of a new system for their field data collection, data management and reporting.  The system is now being implemented, using open source technologies wherever possible to reduce the ongoing costs for the company.

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The key parts of the app are the ability to call the Exotic Animal Disease hotline, add geo-located pictures to the submission, and include all the details required under the Livestock Disease Control Act 1994.  The information goes directly to the Chief Veterinary Officer’s Unit email inbox. More information on notifiable diseases is available at the AgVic web site, http://agriculture.vic.gov.au/agriculture/pests-diseases-and-weeds/animal-diseases/notifiable-diseases

Click here to read the media release by the Minister for Agriculture, or here for our blog entry.

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Two subsequent phases of work from late 2018 – 2019 have focused on improvements in real-time data display of the drone position and radio tags, offline base-map useability and back-end data processing.

Wildlife Drones have presented their integrated solution to conferences around Australia, and have a growing client base where our desktop app is a critical solution component contributing to important wildlife conservation efforts and research.

More information about this project and about our client Wildlife Drones can be found on our blogs.

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The invitation Hackathon involved a 5-day intensive challenge to develop apps to demonstrate innovative solutions to some key challenges:

• one recreational app to provide information about geofenced regions of Queensland and show allowed and prohibited activities in a region and log your catch,
• a second app to assist the automated submission of logbook data for Commercial fisheries.

Although the proof-of-concepts apps were developed in only 5 days and were not production-ready, the process led to a detailed understanding of the Commercial and eLogBook submission process, and in the 5 days, we were able to produce two lightweight iOS apps to demonstrate the required functionality.

Key Outcomes

• Two lightweight demonstration iOS apps in the 5-day hackathon
• Enhanced understanding of the eLogBook submission process in Queensland Fisheries
• New innovative region geofencing and species logging functionality

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The team had previously reviewed over 45 mobile mapping apps in the market, and Mappt was selected for this project. A standardised form was configured to capture a number of attributes that would characterise a weed cover area, including weed community type, dominant species and stage (e.g. flowering, seeding). Other important layers like imagery and administrative layers were sourced from the City of Stirling and Landgate.

The person in the field is able to capture geo-tagged and time-stamped photographs along with the form information, and the collected data is then synchronised to a field laptop and used to feed into an annual weed management report for the local council to help them plan treatment activities and ongoing monitoring.

The post Trigg Reserve – weed mapping appeared first on Gaia Resources.

The app contains two main components – a listing of organisations that can help with wildlife care, which is displayed in geographic proximity to your location.  This listing includes phone numbers and locations to that you can find them quickly and easily.  In addition, a range of other information on what to do if you find native animals is also included in the app.

The app was built simultaneously for both Android and iPhone, and can be downloaded from the respective stores below.

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