LiVegetation: an investigative tool for vegetation mapping in the era of citizen science

Abstract

<p indent="0mm">Vegetation maps are important for understanding the spatial distribution and geographical pattern of vegetation. Vegetation maps also provide important auxiliary information for natural resource research and management decision-making. Vegetation mapping is based on vegetation survey data. To realize vegetation mapping in continuous areas, the data are supplemented by 3S technology, i.e., remote sensing, geographic information systems, and global positioning systems. Despite the rapid development of 3S technology, obtaining massive distribution information of vegetation groups remains a crucial prerequisite and also represents a bottleneck for large-scale vegetation mapping. With the increased availability of smart terminals and personal remote sensing devices, combined with the rise of citizen science, the crowdsourcing model has created new opportunities for vegetation formation investigation. In this study, we developed a collection and analysis system for vegetation group information based on smartphones and web services, which we refer to as LiVegetation. The LiVegetation application supports Android and iOS systems, and the main functions include data collection, layer management, point of interest management, trajectory management, user information, and data display. The LiVegetation application can efficiently collect photo and text records with geographic information in the field. The LiVegetation web system provides management functions that correspond to the LiVegetation application as well as a data inspection function with hierarchical experts. Since July 2018, the LiVegetation system has collected 108,083 data records, which are widely distributed across 34 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in China. These data cover seven vegetation group types and 582 vegetation formation types. The maximum number of data uploaded by the system in a single day is 5,358, and the maximum total number of data uploaded by a single person in a single day is 2,543. Data collected by the LiVegetation system have been successfully applied to update the 1:1,000,000 Vegetation Map of China and are serving the mapping of the 1:500,000 Vegetation Map of China. In future, it is expected that LiVegetation data will continue to support vegetation ecology research and policy management.