Bight '08 Field Computer

Background

The Southern California Bight 2008 Regional Monitoring Project (Bight’08) is a cooperative effort involving more than 50 southern California agencies to assess the overall ecological health of the Southern California Bight (SCB). Bight ’08 builds on previous successful regional surveys.

A field data acquisition application was developed by SCCWRP and the LA County Sanitation District (LACSD) for use during the Bight ’03 survey, and was later refined for use in Bight ’08. This Bight’08 Field Data System facilitates the collection of all required station occupation and field sampling event information (e.g., grab, trawls, and water quality sampling events). The system has been designed for use on laptop computers, and has an instruction manual for training and reference. Use of the system is strongly recommended to Bight '08 participants as the field data collection system of choice in the survey.
 

Methods

The Field Data System has the following requirements and functions:

• Runs in Windows XP, 2000, or Vista OS environments;

• Stores data in an MS Access 2000, 2003 or 2007;

• Receives direct input of data from DGPS (digital global positioning system) through a serial port, assuring that all samples are associated with an accurate location and eliminating transcription error associated with hand-written entry of coordinates;

• Provides data entry templates for all sampling event information required in the Bight’08 Information Management Plan;

• Employs drop down lists of acceptable values for many entry fields, thereby reducing entry time and assuring accuracy and compliance with Bight’08 data standards;

• Capable of printing fully completed hard copies of Bight’08 field sampling data sheets which can be used for data backup;

• Produces export data files of all sampling data in Microsoft Excel files in a Bight '08 compliant format, suitable for direct submission to the project’s Information Manager;

• Can be used as a primary data collection tool or a simple data entry system for information collected on paper field sampling data sheets.

Status

This is an ongoing project.

Partners

This project is being conducted in collaboration with LACSD, with input from the Bight’08 Information Management Committee.