ecological restoration monitoring with Akarui
A system built together with Akarui for monitoring Ecological Restoration.
Description
Ecological restoration projects consist of actions carried out in degraded areas, with nutritionally poor soil and low diversity of plant species and macrofauna, in order to recover the abundance and diversity of life in these places.
After these actions are carried out, monitoring visits are made to these areas to assess their impact. This assessment is based on three main indices: soil cover, and plant abundance and diversity, following protocols such as those of the São Paulo State Secretariat for the Environment, and the Atlantic Forest Restoration Pact.
During these visits, sample data is collected about the areas. The demand presented by Akarui was to build a tool for digital collection of this data, as well as the processing and calculation of indicators from it.
How we did it
We divided the organization's needs into three stages of activity:
- Data collection
- Data processing and storage
- Indicator calculation and generation of visualizations
For data collection, it was important that it could be used offline and synchronized with a general project database. So we built offline-first forms based on the previously listed questions. These forms were connected to a management system that held the area records, linking the collected information to them. In this system, it is possible to export raw data to .csv files, calculate indicators, add botanical identification to the samples collected (for diversity calculation), and manage monitoring visits. At the end of the process, graphic visualizations were generated with these indicators and published on a static website, to document and share the project.
Technologies used
| Function | Tool | Language/dependency |
|---|---|---|
| Data collection | KoboToolbox | ODK |
| Processing | Tryton | python |
| Visualizations | e-charts | javascript |
| Publication | Static website | Hugo |