Using open sources program and online applications to support environmental monitoring

Abstract

Field survey is an important step in monitoring environmental quality. Until now, there are many difficulties in field study leading to low efficiency due to inadequate equipments. Two of them can be named: - Coordinates and photos of each surveyed point have not been synchronized professionally. - After being synchronized, pictures and surveyed routes need to be shown in public map (e.g. Google Map), open source software (e.g. QGIS) and software that use cloud computing (e.g. Google Earth) to be followed and used for future surveys. In order to solve these two problems, the authors have conducted survey and used GpicSync software to synchronize coordinates and pictures basing on time variable (i.e. the time data was recorded on GPS and the time photos were taken). The study has been implemented in Vinh Phuc province which is located in Northern Vietnam. As a result, synchronizing coordinators and photos becomes faster and simpler. On the other hand, the results of synchronization could be shown on Google Earth, Google Maps, as well as other open source software. In addition, with other environmental information, synchronization also helped with environmental monitoring, investigation, survey, and samples collection.