Biodiversity information is supported by established classifications and its management is currently based on information systems. The largest repositories are extensive databases that gather scientific and technical information on species and their specimens. Besides these applications in research, Biodiversity Informatics can also be very useful in supporting the management of natural sites.
The main goal of this work is to create an innovative solution for information management in a natural site. For that purpose the utility of georeferencing and physical object identification tools was evaluated, and integrated with a spatial database.
Physical identification technologies allow for more efficient control of a natural site’s specimens, by associating each one of them with a connection to its information in the system. This identification can assume many forms, from electronic tags to barcodes. The QR code, a twodimensional barcode standard, was selected as the identification method for this project. It is suited for both casual and professional users, allowing them to access and update relevant information using mobile devices, and it’s easily usable in outside areas.
The use of georeferencing comes naturally to biodiversity information systems, as it allows them to benefit from knowledge on each specimen’s physical location. In this work the PostGIS spatial database was adopted to represent this information. The storage of spatial data, and its use in querying and presentation, were supported by the use of the Google Maps API.
This work proves that integrating georeferencing and physical identification features, combined with recent database and data visualization technologies, allow the creation of efficient systems to manage a natural site’s specimen collection, and to interact with its workers, visitors, and even the scientific community.
The information system created in this project features a spatial database and a web application, in order to provide information on botanical specimens using the above-mentioned tools. These are supported by dynamic maps and mobile Internet contents, providing services to various user types.
A natural site’s data collection has potential for research, and for this reason the work supports the use of the Darwin Core biodiversity standard to ease the sharing of scientific information between organizations. The developed information system allows the exportation of datasets in this format, to use in external analysis or integrate in other initiatives.
To support the application’s development and as a preliminary evaluation of its features, the system was applied to the gardens of Faculty of Engineering of University of Porto, which are in the process of expanding their specimen collection.
The set of tools used in this work created useful features that deliver new services for these spaces. The project resulted in the creation