Mass Rivers_Project Information
Motivation for the Project:
Rivers in Massachusetts have been at risk from hazards such as stormwater runoff, droughts, high bacterial levels, pollution from agricultural and industrial activities, and dam obstructions. Rivers are desperately in need of conservation and protection, and the public perception of hazards facing rivers requires improvement .
To increase public awareness, the Massachusetts Rivers Alliance (Mass Rivers) has been promoting activities to deepen the public’s connection with rivers in Massachusetts and expand their advocacy outreach by promoting recreational opportunities.
The Goal and Objectives
In collaboration with Massachusetts Rivers Alliance, the goal of this project was to develop a mobile app that promotes recreational activities and makes recreational information accessible to the public. We adopted the Agile development approach for this project, breaking down tasks into shorter iterative phases. The Agile approach allowed more flexibility, faster development, and improved communications with the project sponsors . Using the Agile approach, we completed five objectives iterated into two phases, and a final sixth objective to achieve the project goal.
The five objectives iterated in two phases and the final sixth objective to achieve the project goal.
Deliverables:
As a conclusion to this project, we provided the Mass Rivers Alliance with:
- Explore Your Rivers App: The code repository and the database storing the contents of the app
- App Maintenance Manual: The set of instructions on how maintain and update the app contents such as texts and images on the database
- App Publishing Instructions: The set of instructions on how to publish the app onto the App Store and Google Play Store
In addition, we made several recommendations for further enhancements of the app. These include recommendations about content, features, and promotion.
- Explore Your Rivers App Content: Someone skilled in using Comma Separated Values software applications should complete these recommendations.
- Image Resources: There are currently 19 out of 23 rivers that have non-copyrighted images and missing images from 4 rivers.
- River Text Information: There are only 2 out of 23 rivers contents of the Explore Your Rivers web resource populated into the database.
- Tips for Casual Recreationists: Tips can be found by interviewing recreational experts to gather tips and writing them on a separate page in the app.
- Explore Your Rivers App Features: Someone skilled in coding with the language React Native should incorporate these features:
- Captcha: This is a Security Authentication system that protects data within the Supabase database.
- Search & Filter for User-generated Contents: On the Explore page, search for usernames and posts to see specific reviews.
- River Hazards: This can be done by including notification alerts for dangerous weather conditions.
- Specific Regulations of each Watershed: Within each river activity card there can be a link that brings the user to the river’s corresponding watershed association website and their regulations.
- Activity Instructions: When each activity tag is clicked on river cards and review posts, the app can open up another screen or page with text instructions on how to engage in this activity/form of recreation safely.
- App Promotion: Someone skilled in website-related coding should provide a link on the Massachusetts Rivers Alliance webpage for Explore Your Rivers, prompting the audience to download the app.