San Diego Microbial Source-Tracking Study iPad Application

Client

County of San Diego

Services Provided

Monitoring program design; field-data collection protocols; iPad application development; web mapping and data visualization; data analysis and interpretation

A collage of digital maps and data screens shows a blue-highlighted watershed area, map legends, and interface panels with data points, menus, and overlay options related to San Luis Rey River Watershed.

Location

San Diego, California

Project Practice Areas

Waste Management

Project Specifics

The County of San Diego sought total maximum daily load (TMDL) monitoring, special study work, and strategic planning services to support bacteria TMDL implementation and planning for a future TMDL reopener. The county hired Geosyntec to develop TMDL compliance monitoring plans to accompany the comprehensive load reduction plans. Multiagency coordination was essential to gaining approval for the monitoring plan.

Geosyntec Scope of Services

Geosyntec developed and implemented a microbial source tracking special study work plan to accomplish two objectives. First, we helped identify sources of human and nonhuman waste to the county’s MS4 in three watersheds for support source elimination and control. Second, we helped the county accumulate data to support a natural source exclusion, a waste-load allocation modification for the 2016 bacteria TMDL reopener, or both.

The Geosyntec team developed an iPad app to record observational field data, including outfall sizes and conditions, GPS locations, photos, potential nearby bacteria sources, odors, turbidity or color, and flow status/rate.

The Microbe Tracker iPad app, web app, and back-end server we developed makes extensive use of industry-standard open-source technologies including Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP, HTML5, Open Layers, and JavaScript.

The app offers the following features:

Integrated forms for the collection and transmission of data
Well-formatted auto-generated reports for hassle-free reporting
Off-line storage of collected data for working in remote locations with intermittent connection
Onboard Open Layers map for finding sites and visualizing progress
An integrated camera and GPS to capture field photos and coordinates and insert them into forms and reports

Notable Accomplishments

This iPad app allowed for easy and quick collection data in the field while helping avoid transcription errors and lost data. Using the app also resulted in less data-entry time upon returning from the field, compared to traditional hard-copy forms. With the app, data can be collected and recorded even in areas without a reliable connection, and the exact locations of photos can be instantly tracked and mapped.

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