Projects

Mobile Observations System

Project Supporters
National Science Foundation
This project is supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DBI-0547630—Improving Geospatial Data Capture of Biological Features: Development of a Handheld Tool for Field Inventory and Mapping.
Trimble
For the donation of four Juno™ handheld units for early prototyping, testing, and development of the mobile observations system.
Project Team

While this project builds on NatureServe’s thirty-plus years of developing and supporting technologies and standards for biodiversity inventory, mapping, and data management, the effort benefited from extensive collaboration with other software and data developers as well as target user groups. Key partners include:

Cornell Lab of Ornithology
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology (CLO) hosts a well–recognized information technology department that has participated in the development of both handheld and online observational data collection tools. CLO has collaborated with NatureServe on previous projects in the area of observation standards.
New York Natural Heritage Program
The New York Natural Heritage Program (NYNHP) is a NatureServe member program housed within the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s Division of Fish, Wildlife, & Marine Resources and operates as a partnership between the state and The Nature Conservancy. Building on their staff’s extensive experience in field-data collection using GPS and personal digital assistant (PDA) handheld devices and their own custom-developed tools, NYNHP helped translate requirements into technical specifications, provided guidance on system development, and reviewed and tested product prototypes.
Washington Natural Heritage Program
The Washington Natural Heritage Program (WANHP) is a NatureServe member program housed with the Washington State Department of Natural Resources. Like NYNHP, WANHP has extensive field data collection experience, including with handheld devices, and they collaborated on system development and the review and field-testing of product prototypes.
University of New Mexico
Natural Heritage New Mexico (NHNM) is a NatureServe member program housed as a division of the Museum of Southwestern Biology at the University of New Mexico. NHNM contributed their extensive field data collection experience to the system design process and the review and field-testing of product prototypes.
University of Wyoming
The Wyoming Natural Diversity Database (WYNDD) is a NatureServe member program housed within the University of Wyoming. WYNDD’s observational data management expertise helped structure observation data for derivative applications and products like predictive range mapping or long–term monitoring. Their involvement informed the design of the proposed system in ways that support the system’s broader national research objectives.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DBI–0547630—Improving Geospatial Data Capture of Biological Features: Development of a Handheld Tool for Field Inventory and Mapping. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.