Field Data Collection for Biologists – There's an App for That!

In this age of digital information and mobile devices, why are we still hand recording field observations on paper forms? This doesn’t have to be the case, but will the alternatives work for your project? Recently we developed an electronic data collection process for a project in Puget Sound, Washington. With extensive amounts of data expected from 100 field sites collected over a 4 month period, we looked for an accurate, auditable, flexible, and efficient solution. Export to commonly used desktop tools for analysis was a necessity. To accomplish this, we utilized xml forms created in Microsoft InfoPath™, and distributed to field tablets with a mobile app called Formotus™. The interface was used simultaneously by two field crews, and proved to be intuitive, stable, and effective. Forms were submitted through the app directly to the database manager, who consolidated the data for modeling and analysis. This poster will present reasons for choosing this approach, technology used, field form construction and data management feedback from the users, limitations, and cost. The approach worked extremely well for this project. For routine actions or large projects with repetitive data collection requirements, electronic data collection should be considered a viable approach.