Alaskan Hunting Nav

Earth

To develop app that enables these hunters to make scientifically informed decisions that reduce their vulnerability to environmental hazards. This tool will:

Create a local record of climate change;
Draw attention to problems in the community related to climate change;
Increase cross-cultural communication among scientists and the community; and
Support efforts of language revitalization and transfer of intergenerational knowledge.

Explanation

Alaskan hunters usually rely on their experience and word of other hunters to take decisions on whether to hunt in a particular place or not. But the weather there can change in a breakneck pace and it becomes very risky to rely solely on non-scientific data.

Our project aims to achieve the dual purpose of helping the Alaskan hunting community to stay safe from sea ice hazards on one hand and raising awareness about the effects of climate change on the other. We are fetching important data like sea-surface temperature, sea-ice fraction, wind speed/direction, velocity of currents etc. from data centers of various government and non-government organizations and showing these valuable information through a mobile app having a user-friendly and intuitive interface. The sparse data points are converted into continuous points using a machine learning technique (Linear polynomial regression). This app will merge the best elements of traditional hunting knowledge and the vast amount of open data available, and thus will enable the hunters to make scientifically sound decisions to reduce hazards and maximize their objective.

Additionally, the hunters will be able to customize their own map. The app will allow voice command and special gesture based UI, reducing dependency on finger-based interaction to a minimum, in extreme cold weather. A lot of focus is put on a information-packed yet distraction-free UI to enhance user experience and ease of use. To help the user in dire situations, a distress call option is available which will pinpoint the exact location of the user and send instant alerts to other users and local police nearby.

Moreover, the users will not only take benefit from data but also provide their unique insight about a particular location through photos and audio. This will serve additional unique purposes of language revitalization of dying out Alaskan native languages, direct on-the-field assistance to research of scientists and preservation of local environmental knowledge of the natives.

Resources Used

NOAA GEO-IDE UAF ERDDAP Dataset
Python SciPy Module
Google Cloud Messaging
Google Location Services