Use of Smartphone and GIS Technology for Sustainable Forestry in Eastern Ontario

Abstract

We examine whether the current generation of consumer-grade digital mobile computing technology, so called smartphone technology, is usable to perform and improve field data collection in the context of sustainable forest management. An electronic data acquisition system was developed based on a handheld smartphone device and desktop geographic information system (GIS). A custom timber cruise application and commercial mapping software were used with the smartphone/desktop GIS to record and process forest stand and geospatial information. Usability testing was carried out to measure workflow efficiency and system performance of the smartphone GIS compared to traditional paper-based methods. The results showed that the smartphone GIS successfully met performance objectives and significantly increased workflow efficiencies by improving data transfer and processing times over conventional paper methods; however use of the mobile device promoted greater data entry errors, increased data collection times, and led to more equipment malfunctions than using paper, GPS, and a digital camera. The prototype electronic data acquisition system was determined not reliable as a stand-alone device solely responsible for collecting cruise data, but was found to be well suited for ad-hoc mapping of forest features.