D-Lab I — Morogoro Environmental Data Collection App (Tanzania)
Winter 2019 - D-Lab I
Tanzania is a country in Sub-Saharan Africa with a population of 53.7 million. With 70% of its population below the poverty line and a young population structure, one of the country’s current concerns is the management and lack of resources that its people depend on (World Bank, 2015). Key natural resources for Tanzania are lumber and water sources which shift attention to the country’s environment. The Tanzanian government didn't have a way to collect environmental data and there has been an increase in depletion of these natural resources.
The project focuses on the Morogoro region. Morogoro is in the eastern region of the country and has a population of about 2.2 million. Morogoro has nine districts and about 80% of its population lives in rural areas. Morogoro has nine major cities and eight large national parks, supporting a diverse biodiversity, with forests, water sources and many animal species, all which would be better-protected with improved environmental data collection. With this mobile app, the government can quickly collect data from citizens to not only address environmental misconduct, but also better align policies with the country’s needs.
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D-Lab II — Morogoro Environmental Data Collection App (Tanzania)
Spring 2019 - D-Lab II
This is the continuation of the above project from D-Lab I
The goal was to create an Android application to help log environmental incidents in the Morogoro region of Tanzania. The client, Venance S. Segere, a Humphrey Fellow who works for as a Technical Environmental Adviser for the Morogoro Government, wanted an Android application to allow locals to send environmental reports directly to their local government. To be successful, this application needed to include an easy to use interface, a database to hold all of the reports, and security to ensure no individual could be traced.