The original version of this document is located at https://docs.qfield.org/success-stories/ecological-surveying

Improving Efficiencies in Ecological Surveying using QField

By Ryan Bell, GIS Consultant, Delta-Simons Environmental Consultancy

Goal

To conduct ecological surveying more efficiently than has been
previously achieved through traditional non-digital techniques, using
QField as a medium for standardised and flexible field data collection.

Project Requirements

To facilitate effective field work, regular consultation with the
Ecology team is required to ensure that QField projects are prepared
appropriately. Firstly, basemaps comprising aerial imagery and proposed
development plans are prepared by georeferencing and constructing
pyramids in QGIS. Point, line and polygon vector layers are then created
to support digitisation and associated data collection. Using a range of
widgets, attribute fields are customised to meet the requirements of the
Ecology team. These include:

Style

: drop-down list of selectable styles tailored for conducting
ecological surveys

Scale

: drop-down list of selectable scales for point and line feature

Info

: space for inserting a feature description

Image

: location for images to be captured and stored

Geometry

: contains self-populated geometry values, e.g. area, perimeter,
length

Timestamp

: records the time and date that a feature was created/last modified

Result

Delta-Simons are saving approximately 40% of the time previously
consumed by traditional ecological field data collection. QField has
significantly improved the ecological surveying workflow by:

• Removing the need to recreate GIS outputs from physical drawings
• Reducing the overall amendments required for GIS outputs
• Improving communication channels (see Figure 1.)
• Improving the accuracy and quality of data

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