Envirocloud: a web application for citizen science bird watching
Creators: name: KA, Nishadh
name: Sheeba Nanjan
name: Sebastian, Mathew K
name: , Azeez.P.A.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2011

description: Introduction:<br> Ornithology as a field of science having a long practice in involving citizen scientist in knowledge<br> generation (Dickinson et al 2010). Due to the immense pleasure and joy in bird watching, It always<br> free to avail a large quantum of volunteered amateurs in its observational and monitoring research.<br> The involvement of citizen scientist in ornithology can be traced well back to the start of 20th<br> century from the initiatives like Christmas Bird Count (Dickinson et al 2010). An research account<br> on motivation behind bird watching shows the influence of four factors such as appreciation,<br> conservation, achievement and affiliation for motivating volunteer in bird watching endeavors<br> (McFarlane 1994). In north America the greater part of the knowledge on distribution and<br> abundance of birds are gathered from the observation of citizen scientist (Bonter and Hochachka<br> 2008). Though the involvement of amateurs significantly developed the understanding of<br> geographical distribution of birds in India (Urfi 2005). While comparing other parts of world, in<br> India the involvement of public participation in bird watching was yet to reach the breadth and the<br> depth of the society (Shyamal 2007). Widely available information technology tools such as mobile<br> phones has to be networked to reach the volunteers of bird watching to improve the quantity and<br> quality of bird observation for long term and landscape level studies (Shyamal 2007). The objective<br> of the present study was to create a web application for bird watchers to easily store and visualize<br> their observation through sending SMS. By this it could improve the interest of public&amp;#39;s<br> participation in bird watching.<br> Materials and Methods: As a pilot project, the area of interest of the web application was delimited to<br> SACON campus, Coimbatore, India. A geocoded data table of the area of interest is created using<br> Google earth. The web application was developed using XAMPP free and open source web server<br> solution package.FrontlineSMS was used as an SMS gateway software, which receives the SMS<br> through a 3G modem and route it to an Apache HTTP server of XAMPP. The PHP script was<br> executed for storing the routed SMS into a database in MySQL. Server side script was executed to<br> process the received geocoded comprising SMS. It was then subject to call the geocoded table<br> imported into the database. By this, SMS message comprising an occurrence of bird or event could<br> be pointed into the map of area of interest using Google Maps Javascript API V3. The SMS<br> message also stored into the Relation Database Management System MySQL. The location of nest sites in SACON campus was recorded using envirocloud web<br> application and sending the observation through SMS. Nests were systematically searched in and<br> around building. Nest position and location, nest height and status such as active and inactive nest<br> were recorded.<br> Results and Discussion: The web application envirocloud was in initial stage and currently the web<br> application has the facility to receive the SMS and plot the received SMS message based on geo<br> code provided in the message (Figure-1). The received geocoded SMS comprising the location of<br> nest sites and varies bird watching observation was shown in the figure-1. Through EnviroCloud the<br> position and diversity of nest in SACON building were studied. Total of 23 nests were recorded in<br> three main buildings viz., office, lab, canteen and hostel (Table-1) . Nests were identified by their material and species activities. Highest number of nest were observed of Squirrel nests in which 8<br> were inactive and 6 were active nests. Among bird species 6 bulbul nests and each nest of Purple-<br> rumped Sunbird, Sparrow and Common Myna nest were found (Table-2). Out of 6 Bulbul nests one<br> was found in dome of the building and 5 nests were found in plant Duranta repens (Table-3).<br> Common Myna and Squirrel nests were occupied in window ventilators of buildings. Occupation of<br> Squirrel nests were also found in old nest boxes, dome and windows. House Sparrow nest were<br> found in light box. Purple-rumped Sunbird nest on rope. To exactly locate the nest site navigational<br> technique of bearing measurement was taken using the distance and angle readings from geocode of<br> SACON field handbook. In further development of web application bearing measurement has to be<br> combined with Javascript of Google Maps using m.cogo command of GRASS to convert it into<br> latitude and longitude (Miller 2009).<br> References:<br> J. Dickinson, B. Zuckerberg, and D.N. Bonter, “Citizen science as an ecological research tool:<br> challenges and benefits,” Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 41, no. 1 (2010):<br> 150-172.<br> B.L. McFarlane, “Specialization and motivations of birdwatchers,” Wildlife Society Bulletin 22, no.<br> (1994): 361–370.<br> D.N. Bonter and W.M. Hochachka, “A citizen science approach to Ornithological research: Twenty<br> years of watching backyard birds,” In proceedings of fourth international parterns in flight<br> conference: thundra to tropics,(2008) 453-458.<br> Shyamal, “Opinion: Taking Indian ornithology into the Information Age,” Indian Birds 3, no. 4<br> (2007): 122–137.<br> A.J. Urfi, M. Sen, A. Kalam, and T. Meganathan. “Counting birds in India: Methodologies and<br> trends.” Current Science 89, no. 12 (2005): 1997–2003.<br> E.G.Miller, “GRASS GIS manual: m.cogo”, 2009.<br> http://grass.wodgik.malopolska.pl/manuals/html70_user/m.cogo.html.