MPA Watch
The Global TIES Coastkeeper team was responsible for building a mobile web application to assist San Diego Coastkeeper volunteers monitoring beach and ocean usage. With the application, volunteers can report data such as the number of surfers and animals, fishing boats, and the amount of trash.
Keeping San Diego’s waters clean
Coastkeeper Meets Global TIES
In the fall of 2012, I along with a half-dozen engineers from Global TIES met with San Diego Coastkeeper to find a way to help keep San Diego's waters clean. One of Coastkeeper's objectives for the year was to record beach and ocean activity in and around two marine protected areas (MPAs) in San Diego. At the time of the meeting, Coastkeeper volunteers recorded activity by walking out to the beach and tallying activity on paper. After collecting the data from volunteers, a Coastkeeper employee would manually enter the data into a spreadsheet. Coastkeeper wanted our team to make the collection process more efficient.
Mobile Solutions
In the weeks after the meeting, we discussed different approaches to Coastkeeper's problem. We agreed that creating a mobile application would lead to the largest efficiency gain. With a mobile application, volunteers can directly enter data into a database, eliminating the need for an employee to manually enter it into an excel document.
Although the team agreed that a mobile solution was a great solution, we disagreed whether it should be a native app or a web app. Native apps offer better performance, recognizable interface elements, and access to more hardware sensors. Web apps can be used across multiple operating systems, can ensure that users are using the latest version, and are easier to build. Since Coastkeeper needed the app to work with both Android and iOS users, a web application was the best choice.
Leadership
To build the mobile web application, named MPA Watch, our team divided into two subteams - one to build the back-end and another for the front-end. Since I had prior experience building websites, I joined the front-end team, where I was elected sub-team leader for the quarter. As the leader of the sub-team, I was responsible for holding team meetings, assisting members with the development of the interface, and keeping the team focused on the quarter's goals.
Progress
By the end of the quarter, our team had developed a prototype of the interface using HTML, CSS, and jQuery Mobile. We also coordinated with the back-end team to connect the UI to the database and dynamic pages. Coastkeeper was impressed with our solution and the speed at which it was developed. They also provided some feedback and requested some features that next quarters MPA Watch team would work on.
During the Winter quarter, the goals for MPA Watch included improving the asthetic and responsiveness of the interface, finishing integrating the interface with database, and viewing the collected data in an administration panel. Throughout the quarter, I helped my fellow team members understand the code base, implement features, or fix bugs in the application. By working as a team, we were able to polish up the application and deliver the newest version to a happy Coastkeeper.
In the spring of 2013, the MPA Watch team worked heavily on data analysis. In our testing, we noticed that it was difficult for a Coastkeeper employee to drill down into specific data or to view data across multiple MPA sub-sections. To solve this problem, the team worked on the back-end to create detailed and aggregated views, and utilized the D3 JavaScript library to create pie charts and line graphs. The result was an intuitive and flexible interface, allowing Coastkeeper to view and export the specific data they needed.
In 2014, the MPA Watch team released the application to Coastkeeper, who now uses it to efficiently monitor the MPAs in San Diego.