Mapping and sharing agro-biodiversity using Open Data Kit and Google Fusion Tables

Abstract

The interest in using informatics tools for collecting information on agro-biodiversity is increasing, since they greatly facilitate the collection and sharing of data. Anyway, in some cases, the use of such tools is not of immediate comprehension for a common user because of several reasons (for example, the use of APIs), so an effort should be done to simplify these tools and allow greater participation for general public. In this optic, we tested two tools freely available, namely Open Data Kit and Google Fusion Tables, to verify if their integrated use would allow a participative collection (and sharing) of data related to agro-biodiversity. We use Open Data Kit to collect information regarding several vegetable crops at risk of genetic erosion (including multimedia and GPS data) that were stored into the Google App Engine platform. Such information were afterwards transferred into Google Fusion Tables for mapping them and share with a general public. Both tools were tested in real scenarios in the Italian region of Puglia and the results seems to be encouraging: Open Data Kit has provided a good platform for the collection of data and it is reliable for georeferencing the fields, while Google Fusion Tables allowed us to show the data and share them in an easy way.