whered-the-water-go

We decided saturday morning that we would like to help create a solution to the clean water mapping challenge because we understand the impact access to fresh water has on the quality of life for a local population. We also felt that this challenge would give us an opportunity to leverage technologies that none of us have used in the past which would give us a great learning experience.

Our application is a tool that field technicians can use to find, track, and monitor freshwater sources at any location on the planet. All the data is stored in a relational database model which allows multiple platforms easy access.

The mobile application is currently only implemented for the Android mobile platform but can easily be extended to all mobile devices. We have also created a webpage that has more database interactions for advanced data management.

A technician in the field uses our tool to view water sources as they relate to his/her position on a Google Maps view in the application. When the technician opens the app, it accesses the stored data in our database and adds markers to his/her map based on the current zoom level. Users can then add new markers simply by touching the desired spot on the map and entering the requested data. The application will then return a Water Sample Id number for the technician to attach to any samples he/she may have collected. Our system is designed so that the technician would then send that sample to a lab where an analysis would be conducted. The results of that analysis would then be entered into the database using the website.

We also allow technicians that ability to add new data about existing water sources by touching a marker. The technician is then prompted to enter the new information. The system expects the technician to take a new water sample so we give them a water sample number as well. If the technician does not take a sample, there is no issue because the system will just store an empty result for that entry.

After working for the weekend, our application is almost fully functional. The Android App is able to communicate with our webservice and interact with the database. The website is designed and ready to be deployed to a hosting server as well. The only area we did not complete was the security access protocols to protect data integrity. A user login system and administration guidelines should be developed before field testing this Application.

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