Mobile Application Development and The Conservation of Natural Resources
The world is undergoing a ‘biodiversity crisis’. Even though many are aware of the need for urgency in the protection of their mother earth and their fellow species which is indispensable for the future of mankind and the planet, not everybody has yet felt its importance. What is required by the community is to take notice of a lack of common interest in this burning issue, and enable inclusion of people from different backgrounds. This will help in creating a feedback cycle, where one can respond and create socio-cultural perceptions. Research has fruitfully shown the importance of diversity and inclusion: where teams from diverse fields and backgrounds correlate and increase creativity and innovation and reach solutions.
So why can’t experts gather over a platform and create a community where they may not just discuss but create solutions to help conserve our natural resources before we totally run out of them. The time has come for every single person on this planet to move from being merely a technology consumer to become an innovation leader and actively play their part in seeking to save what belongs to mother nature. This challenging and critical change of mindset calls for technologists and the resource conservation community to think outside the box and help build and support the necessary bridge between them and make it possible for everybody to contribute and preserve the natural resources. The ingredients are already present, but success depends on the willingness to adapt, interact and make coordinated movements in an organizational ecosystem where collaborations may forge and be funded.
The Mobile Application Development Landscape
Mobile application development has grasped a lot of attention in the last decade and is still underway to produce advanced software that may serve in some way.
There exist various modules for a mobile application developer to obtain information in real-time about physical and environmental variables like rainfall, temperature, soil moisture, etc through APIs and thereby give more accurate information for providing forecasts and easing the process of decision making. Smart metering through mobile apps can help in raising awareness and having better control over usage.
Mobile applications may be designed to help curb corruption, particularly in the public sector. For instance, e-government initiatives may be made in the form of digital record keeping, service delivery and mobile-based procurement systems. Initiatives like such can assist a great deal in controlling corruption through enhancing transparency and accountability, strengthen reform-oriented players, limit the opportunities for government officials to behave discretionarily (with their behavior being monitored), and increasing citizen’s access to information on government processes. There is considerable existing evidence on the success of such initiatives. By increasing transparency, accountability and participation in resource management, we can be in the capacity to ensure that the resource wealth is uniformly and justly distributed and can eventually bring some positive developments in resource management. For example, technology-assisted information flows can inform and help to ensure the concerned individuals and organizations that the revenues from oil and gas mining are being spent on public interests rather than on personal interests. A mobile app-based complaint registering system can allow a person to spare no time and register their complaint in case of any illegitimate activity done in their vicinity such as illegal fishing, tree cutting, etc.
Efforts are required by everyone concerned for the use of land, water, and forest reserves and in my consensus, there appears to be no other alternative but to involve everyone responsible for using them.
