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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Environmental Microbial & Food Safety Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #340373
Research Project: Design and Implementation of Monitoring and Modeling Methods to Evaluate Microbial Quality of Surface Water Sources Used for Irrigation

Location: Environmental Microbial & Food Safety Laboratory

Title: GIS-based smartphone application to support water quality data collection

Author
item Morgan, Billie
item Pachepsky, Yakov

Submitted to: BARC Poster Day
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/6/2017
Publication Date: 4/26/2017
Citation: Griffith, B.J., Pachepsky, Y.A. 2017. GIS-based smartphone application to support water quality data collection. BARC Poster Day. 28th Annual BARC Poster Day, Beltsville, MD on April 26, 2017.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Thorough registration of locations, conditions, and operations at sampling sites is essential for any field survey work. The collected information of this type has to be systematic, transferable, and accessible from different locations of data analysis. The handheld data-recording with smart devices presents an excellent opportunity to create a customized application which can be tailored to a specific survey activity. A recent ESTI product Survey123 provides the opportunity to geotag activity at the measurement location, to link different types of data to the location, and to place the sampling location on the map that can be accessed via the Internet. The objective of this work was to develop the smartphone application "FarmWaterQuality" to be used in surveying sources of irrigation water. The application allows the user to enter the standardized georeferenced information which includes the same entries for each sampling location. In particular, the record includes geolocation reference to the sampling location, date and time of sampling, an appropriate image, sample labels, verbal info about observed weather conditions, management activities, shade, debris, type of algae, presence of wildlife and domestic animals in water, etc. The record content can be changed from one survey to another. The unique URL is given to each survey, and results become available at the ESRI internet site in map format with linked records for each location. The "FarmWaterQuality" application provides assurance that the data collection is done systematically, automatically creates the GIS-based representation of spatial information, which can be easily accessed and collaboratively analyzed.