Decision Support System for Biebrza National Park - Efficient Decision Support Systems: Practice and Challenges from Current to Future - page 449

This database is adapted for storing information on location and chemical and physical
properties of tested water taken from ground bore-holes, as well as from lakes and rivers. It
generally contains data from the area of BPN and from its protection zone.
 Pollution database
This database is adapted for storing information related to observation of the following
types of pollution: surface water pollution (direct sewage discharges), groundwater
pollution (waste dumps, fertilization, dunghills), air pollution, extra-ordinary
environmental hazards.
 Hydrology & Meteorology database
This database is adapted for storing information related to the following observations made
at piezometers, gauge stations and weather stations: location, levels of surface water and
groundwater, discharge of surface water, precipitation quantity, air temperature and other
meteorological data.
 Soils database
This database is adapted for storing historical information on the following observations
from soil pits, as well as cyclical surveys of physical and chemical properties of soil at
various depths. It particularly contains: location, plant coverage, depth to water surface,
characteristic of soil layers, general soil type, physical and chemical properties of soil.
 Fires database
This database is adapted for storing information on location of fires, causes for their
occurrence, duration, number and type of fire brigades participating in extinguishing them,
character and costs of damages caused by fire.
7.2 Mobile application
To improve the data collection process in DSS, recently mobile applications were developed.
These applications have been successfully tested by researchers in extreme conditions of
remote area, so that, after positive experience, they were distributed to the staff of the BNP.
Four mobile applications have been developed: a “piezometer”, “soil pit”, “fauna
observation” and “phytosociological photo”. The task of “piezometer“ application is to
record water level and physico-chemical parameters of water taken at different levels, i.e.:
pH, electro conductivity, temperature. However, “soil pit“ application is designed to
describe the habitat in the individual soil layers. It consists of a series of subforms describing
in turn: place and time of observation, layer (thickness and type of soil) other physico-
chemical soil parameters. Both applications were developed using ArcPad Application
Builder and work in an environment of ArcPad (Fig. 4). After testing these applications, it
became clear that ArcPad because of its numerous functions is complicated to use for
ordinary BPN staff without specialized training. Therefore, other applications were
developed in an ArcGIS Mobile (Fig. 5). “Fauna observation“ application consists of one
form of recording: who, where, when saw a particular animal species, in which number and
which behavior. “Phytosociological photo“ application consists of two forms of registration:
who, where, when and as a second: in what plant community was the observation and
counting performed and description of plant species. The advantage of ArcGIS Mobile
application is its full integration with ArcGIS Server, which enables anywhere, anytime, to
download the current state of the database of maps and forms over the Internet and in the
same way to send the work on the server. This application consists of five tabs Map View,
Collect Features, Search Features, View Work List, Synchronize, the corresponding status in
accordance with their name on various activities.