Facilitating the exchange of vegetation data
Physical Geography
Final Report Abstract
New vegetation surveys are continually being conducted, and most of this data is now stored in digital formats. This information is incredibly valuable because the state of plant communities provides important insights into the health of our environment. However, the diversity of data formats can make it difficult to manage. Given the clear need to combine this data, a key question arises: how can we do this when the formats vary so widely? This is where the Veg-X exchange format comes in. Veg-X was developed to address this challenge, but its complexity has made it difficult to widely adopt. The goal of this project was to simplify its use. Two main approaches were taken: first, the creation of a conversion tool based on the existing R package VegX, and second, the development of an export function for the Vegapp app, which has been used to collect vegetation data in the field since 2018. The conversion tool, called VegXshiny, is a web-based application that can also be used locally. It provides a step-by-step interface to help users prepare and map their data into the Veg-X format. For example, when the data comes in the form of tables, VegXshiny helps to map columns from the source data to the appropriate Veg-X fields. To make the process even easier, the tool includes documentation and a tutorial video. VegXshiny is free, open-source, and available at GitHub. The second part of the project involved adding a Veg-X export function to the Vegapp Android app, allowing users to generate a Veg-X document directly after collecting field data—without needing any extra steps. This integration was possible because Veg-X inspired the design of Vegapp from the start. Vegapp is also free. With both of these tools, generating Veg-X data is now simpler and more accessible. They open up possibilities for transferring vegetation data between different databases with minimal data loss. However, to fully unlock the potential of Veg-X, additional applications that can read Veg-X files are still needed.
Publications
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App Vegapp, Aufnahme von Pflanzengesellschaften
Schmidtlein, Sebastian
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Shiny-App
Schmidtlein, Sebastian
