Make tourism more respectful of marine life

Technological Module : Database

A. Exploratory research

Project n°1: Pavillon Bleu

1. Project carriers: Pavillon Bleu team members
2. Beneficiaries: Endangered marine species, Birds, People, Tourists
3. Users: Tourists going to Bretagne
4. Need: The need to go on a beach or to a harbour that is clean and respectful of the environment.
5. Principle: It registers the beaches and harbours that recieved the Pavillon Bleu Label for 2021. In 2021 410 beaches and 115 harbours got the the label.This label has been designed in line with the Sustainable Development Objectives and are based on the following main criteria:

Environmental education
Quality of management of the site and its environment
Waste management
Care of the water

From the list of cities that is provided on the App, you can locate the beaches and harbours and also get the meteo.
6. Main technologies involved: Geolocalisation, get the weather from other websites (API), linked to a database of all beaches and harbour (database)
Sources: https://www.pavillonbleu.org/teragir/le-pavillon-bleu.html https://apps.apple.com/fr/app/plages-pavillon-bleu-2011/id380486339

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Project n°2: Obsenmer

1. Project carriers: Cotentin Cetacean Study Group
2. Beneficiaries: Endangered marine species, Birds, People, Tourists
3. Users: Its has been designed for a large set of people: it can be for professionnals, associations, boaters and it can be used in ecotouristic programs.
4. Need: The need is to raise awareness about marine ressources of the erea, the regulation that is enforced and the good practices that need to be followed.
5. Principle: It divides 6 geographical ereas: mediteranean sea to Açores, the English channel, Atlantic ocean, Guyana, Polynesia and Antilles. There are two levels of observation for boaters: the expert level and boater level. This application includes: a guide of identification to recognize the different species, an historic of observations, a quizz to train to recognize the different species and the possibility to share your observations on the social media.
6. Main technologies involved: A database registering all of the observations, a tool to help the photo identification of marine animals, the use of a GPS and an API to share your discoveries on the social media.
Sources: https://www.obsenmer.org/pages/presentation https://www.obsenmer.org/cgu/conditions-generales-d-utilisation.pdf

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Project n°3: Nav&Co

1. Project carriers: The French Office for Biodiversity (OFB) and the Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service of the Navy (SHOM).
2. Beneficiaries: Endangered marine species, Birds, People, Tourists
3. Users: Boaters that navigate in the breton erea.
4. Need: The need is to raise awareness about marine ressources of the erea, the regulation that is enforced and the good practices that need to be followed.
5. Principle: This application let you discover the local biodiversity, based on nautical chart of Brittany's water. It informs the boaters when they enter a marine proctected erea and any erea where a particular environmental regulation is enforced. At the end of the trip a dashboard is generated, summing up, the path that have been taken during the trip. For now, the application is applicable from Mont Saint-Michel to Croisic.
6. Main technologies involved: Use the location of the phone based on GPS and network, USB storage, a database registering the environmental legislation, pictures and information about biodiversity and a connection to the service that gives information about the tides.
Sources: https://www.ccbi.fr/actualites/lancement-de-lapplication-mobile-navco-en-bretagne/ https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.navco

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Project n°4: Ocean's Zero

1. Project carriers: Surfrider Fondation Europe
2. Beneficiaries: Endangered marine species, Birds, People, Tourists
3. Users: People that live or tourists that stay on the seaside.
4. Need: The need is to raise awareness about marine ressources of the erea, the regulation that is enforced and the good practices that need to be followed.
5. Principle: This application offers to teach users how to reduce waste through a serie of 25 challenges. Each challenge corresponds to a type of behavior and for each behavior is explained the impact on the environment and the actions that can be made to reduce it. At the end of each challenge it also displays the result of the other users and evaluates the positive impact all the users had together on the environment.
6. Main technologies involved: The main technology involved is a database storing the different data related to the challenges.
Sources: https://apps.apple.com/fr/app/oceans-zero/id1437627143

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B. Deepening

I - Obsenmer:

1. Carriers and actors of the project: In addition to the intiators of the project we can also find the following actors:

The administrator general: GECC
The administrators of the different zones: Cybelle Planète (Mediterranean sea to Açores), GECC (English channel), Bretagne vivante (Atlantic ocean), Océania (Polynésia), GEPOG and the WWF Guyane (Guyana). The administrator for Antilles zone is to be determined.
Financial support: Occitanie region, MAAF Assurances, French Agency for Biodiversity, Dreal Normandie, MAVA
Local regulation: the management of sea erea /
Developer of the application: Cybelle Planète
Content management: Users / scientifics

2. Research question: How can boaters be aware of marine species to be protected?

3. The reason I selected the project: I've selected this project for the following reasons:

It is well designed
It is entertaining since you can train yourself to recognize them through games
There are different levels of data collection which means they adapted to the different segments of their audience.
I like the collaborative side of this app because it can create a community

II - User scenario:

1. Users: Its has been designed for a large set of people: it can be for professionnals, associations, boaters and it can be used in ecotouristic programs.

2. Persona: Sam is a single 27 year-old engineer that is a nature and an animal lover. He enjoys practicing scuba-diving, sailing, climbing and hiking during his sparetime. He can't spend a week without going out for a run or else for a walk in the forest. As during his scuba-diving sessions he noticed that the variety of species encountered decreased, he is worried about the fact that in a few years from now, most of them will disappear. In addition to this, he sees that a lot of people aren't aware of the harm that can cause their misbehavior when going on holidays on the seaside. Therefore, his main preoccupation is finding a way to make people aware of the beauty of the marine life.

3. Key features: Thanks to this app, the user can:

Collect information about a specie that has been encountered during the boat trip
Take a picture of the animal
Learn to recognize these animals
Get informed about the good practices that need to be followed
Access to the public observations registered by other users

4. UX storyboard:

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III - Technical analysis:

1-2. Technical overview - Database version:
The different databases that are used in the project are the following: information related to the observation, the animals that have been registered, informations of the user, information about the observation parameters.

Observations' database:

Observation's id number - stored once
Observation's date - stored once
Observation's current time - updated in real time
Observation's latitude - stored once
Observation's longitude - stored once
Number of animals observed - stored once
Level of accuracy of the number of animals observed - stored once
Public or private status of the observation - stored once
Presence of young animals - stored once
Animal's position - stored once
Speed of the animal observed - stored once
Observation starting time - stored once
Duration of the observation - stored once

Animals' database:

Animal's id number - stored once
Animal's name - stored once
Animal's category - stored once
Animal's standard picture - stored once
Animal's description - stored once

Users' database:

User's id number - stored once
User's name - stored once
User's password - stored once
User's email -stored once
User's first name - stored once
User's last name - stored once
User's structure organization type - stored once
User's boat type - stored once
User's fishing gear - stored once

Types of action:

- data is created : a user creates and fill-in the information related to the journey.

- data is read : a user access the documentation to get more information about a specie.

- data is updated : a new observation is created and the map displaying the count of observation per geographical erea is updated.

- data is deleted : a user decides to delete his Obsenmer user account.

Types of query:

- search : a specie

- filter : by group of species

- sort : by name of specie

3. Added value thanks to databases: The databases are in this case essential because there are a lot of information that need to be strictly organized and structured. The use of data base improve the access to data through query languages for the specific needs of each part of the app. Thus it avoids data redundancy.