Monitoring Wildlife-Vehicle Collisions in the Information Age: How Smartphones Can Improve Data Collection
Monitoring Wildlife-Vehicle Collisions in the Information Age: How Smartphones Can Improve Data Collection
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DOI：
10.1371/journal.pone.0098613
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发表时间：
2014-06-04
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Coster, Daniel C.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Olson, Daniel D.;Bissonette, John A.;Coster, Daniel C.
背景：目前迫切需要准确和标准化的野生动物-车辆碰撞数据，因为它是保护司机和野生动物的缓解项目的基础。收集数据可能具有挑战性，因为野生动物与车辆相撞的事故发生在广阔的地区，一年中的所有季节，而且数量很大。收集如此大规模的数据需要一个高效的数据收集系统。目前还没有被广泛采用的既高效又准确的系统。方法/主要发现：我们的目标是开发和测试一个集成的基于智能手机的系统，用于报告野生动物与车辆的碰撞数据。我们开发的WVC Reporter系统由一个用于数据收集的移动Web应用程序、一个用于集中存储数据的数据库和一个用于查看数据的桌面Web应用程序组成。我们测试的与该应用程序配合使用的智能手机产生了准确的位置(中位数误差=4.6-5.2米)，与只报告高速公路/标志相比，位置错误减少了99%。此外，使用移动Web应用程序输入数据的平均时间(22.0-26.5S)显著短于使用纸/笔方法(52 S)。我们还发现，笔/纸方法的数据输入错误率为10%，使用移动Web应用程序几乎可以消除这些错误。在使用的第一年，WVC Reporter报告了6822具动物身体。桌面Web应用程序改进了对WVC数据的访问，使用户能够轻松地在多个尺度上可视化野生动物与车辆的碰撞模式。结论/意义：WVC Reporter将多种现代技术集成到一个无缝的方法中，以收集、管理和使用WVC数据。因此，该系统提高了报告效率，提高了准确性，并增强了数据的可视化。与拥有空间上准确的和时间上最新的野生动物-车辆碰撞数据的潜在好处相比，该系统的开发成本微不足道。
Background: Currently there is a critical need for accurate and standardized wildlife-vehicle collision data, because it is the underpinning of mitigation projects that protect both drivers and wildlife. Gathering data can be challenging because wildlife-vehicle collisions occur over broad areas, during all seasons of the year, and in large numbers. Collecting data of this magnitude requires an efficient data collection system. Presently there is no widely adopted system that is both efficient and accurate.Methodology/Principal Findings: Our objective was to develop and test an integrated smartphone-based system for reporting wildlife-vehicle collision data. The WVC Reporter system we developed consisted of a mobile web application for data collection, a database for centralized storage of data, and a desktop web application for viewing data. The smartphones that we tested for use with the application produced accurate locations (median error = 4.6-5.2 m), and reduced location error 99% versus reporting only the highway/marker. Additionally, mean times for data entry using the mobile web application (22.0-26.5 s) were substantially shorter than using the pen/paper method (52 s). We also found the pen/paper method had a data entry error rate of 10% and those errors were virtually eliminated using the mobile web application. During the first year of use, 6,822 animal carcasses were reported using WVC Reporter. The desktop web application improved access to WVC data and allowed users to easily visualize wildlife-vehicle collision patterns at multiple scales.Conclusions/Significance: The WVC Reporter integrated several modern technologies into a seamless method for collecting, managing, and using WVC data. As a result, the system increased efficiency in reporting, improved accuracy, and enhanced visualization of data. The development costs for the system were minor relative to the potential benefits of having spatially accurate and temporally current wildlife-vehicle collision data.