Introduction
The Utah Department of Natural Resources (DNR) conducts hundreds of surveys to determine the health of native Utah species and their habitats. These surveys cover the entire state of Utah from mammals to amphibians. All of these surveyed creatures are endangered and crucial to the health of the ecosystem. To cover the state, the Department of Natural Resources is assisted by the Utah’s Hogle Zoo and the Wild Utah Project. Both employees and volunteers contribute to these annual surveys. The number of surveys continues to increase each year as more volunteers give their time to survey endangered species. With the number of surveys increasing, it only makes sense to streamline the data collection methods. The purpose of this project was to practice project management skills by creating documentation throughout the lifespan of the project.
Methodology
This was a theoretical project that relied on research and discussion with the potential client. It was a unique chance to develop documenting for a potential project without the added pressure of submitting deliverables. I was able to outline the implementation of a Mobile Survey Application that automates the data input step for the Department of Natural Resources. This would save time and money by eliminating manually data inputs. The application would standardize the data received from each of the five regions. I started by testing different data collection methods. A sample survey form was developed using Survey123 for ArcGIS Online (Figure 1). The next step was to use Microsoft flow in conjunction with Survey123 to facilitate the export the data to the DNR. This allowed the DNR to quality check the excel file as it was received.
Conclusion
For a future project, the integration could be introduced as a dashboard in addition to an excel file. A dashboard would be more versatile and allow greater visualization of the data. This project could also be expanded to integrate ArcGIS Pro to save data files and export to excel instead of using Microsoft flow. After using more of the functionality within ArcGIS Online this project could easily be developed for use by the DNR.
Skills
- Project Management
- GIS Design
- GIS Workflow
- Communication
Melissa Gfeller 