Impact of Databases on Oceanographic Citizen Science

Abstract

Due to recent advances in low-cost and easily programmable micro-electronic sensors, citizen scientist interested in learning more about their personal connection to the ocean and those aspects of marine waters that they interact with are now able to gather and organize data. They can then visualize that data and draw some basic conclusions about the dynamics of their local marine environment. A key component of this pathway towards citizen science engagement is the implementation of an effective and easy to use database architecture. A database application and user interface was designed, built, and tested to investigate the effectiveness of the application in drawing conclusions regarding marine water dynamics. The application was tested by a small group of undergraduate students who reported strong agreement with positive evaluation statements about the helpfulness of the application. This prototype database development also provides for opportunities to collaboratively investigate with other citizen scientists and archive solutions for long-term data analysis research. The database application is meant for a wide level of expertise as it can be manipulated without novel data but also previous data collected by other scientists.