In conjunction with Wetland Surveys Ireland I have designed a field survey recording database to capture survey data electronically during the coming field season. The database was created in Filemaker Pro 11 and runs on the iPAD using Filemaker Go, a widely used App.
The program has a series of layouts formatted for the iPAD, for use on a field survey, which utilises the touch screen functions of the pad and the drop down menu lists of Filemaker Go. The data entered then links through to a series of conventional database tables, from which site reports (PDF format) can be generated. Data can also be exported from the main database to Excel and other data format files.
It is hoped that this direct electronic data recording process will cut down on the time taken inputting data from conventional paper field survey cards after a typical survey and improve on data accuracy.