Coastkeeper

Mission Statement

notes

The Global TIES Coastkeeper team works to support San Diego Coastkeeper by developing technology which will assist volunteers and administrators in protecting the local marine environment.

Summary

San Diego Coastkeeper is a non­profit organization that aims to protect and restore fishable, drinkable, and swimmable waters in San Diego County. Coastkeeper seeks to accomplish these goals by promoting public stewardship of clean water and a healthy coastal ecosystem through means of community outreach, education, and advocacy.

Global Teams in Engineering Service (Global TIES) is a humanitarian engineering program through University of California, San Diego in which students provide technical expertise to non­profit clients. The Global TIES team this quarter seeks to further the mission of San Diego Coastkeeper by implementing two web application projects: ­­a twitter water waste feed and a beach cleanup application. In the midst of California’s worst drought, San Diego Coastkeeper aims to utilize social media by mapping areas of San Diego that promote conservation of water. By analyzing local Twitter feeds that use the hashtag #SDWaterWaste, users can participate in what is known as “drought shaming” in order to publicly discourage the overuse of water to preserve natural resources. The location of the tweet is scraped from the feed and plotted using Google Maps. Both San Diego Coastkeeper and the public can utilize this tool in order to visualize regions promoting good water usage habits.

This quarter, the focus of the Beach Cleanup App project is to improve data collection and make the application more user friendly so that the client is able to provide it to volunteers during beach cleanup events. Improvements have been made per the client’s request in order to increase the long term sustainability of the application.

Quarter Goals

Twitter Pollution Feed

Build a web application to record and map tweets containing #SDWaterWaste.

San Diego Coastkeeper is interested in finding an easy way for users to report water waste and using those reports to provide a visualization of areas where it is occurring. Especially during a severe drought, it is critical to provide a platform for community engagement in efforts to fight water waste.

Beach Cleanup Web Application

Test and improve a web application which records the type of trash San Diego Coastkeeper volunteers find on San Diego beaches, replacing the need for paper documentation. Since 2007, the organization has completed more than two hundred beach cleanups and removed over one million pounds of debris throughout the county.  San Diego Coastkeeper collects data on its beach cleanups in order to appropriately focus efforts to prevent further pollution.

 

Twitter Pollution Feed

Build a web application to record and map tweets containing #SDWaterWaste.

San Diego Coastkeeper is interested in finding an easy way for users to report water waste. Especially during a severe drought, it is critical to provide a platform for community engagement in efforts to fight water waste.

Client

San Diego Coastkeeper is an organization that "protects the region's inland and coastal waters for the communities and wildlife that depend on them by blending education, community empowerment and advocacy". Founded in 1995, San Diego Coastkeeper has helped curb sewage and urban runoff, led efforts aimed at the creation of strong Marine Protected Areas, removed one million pounds of debris from area beaches and waterways, and much more. The organization consists of full-time biologists, activists, and lawyers who work together with the community for the good of San Diego's bays, beaches, ocean, and the creeks, rivers, and lakes that feed into them.

Team Members

team

  • Robert Drabik
  • Jiacheng Liu
  • Surya Manchikanti
  • Johnathan Lutzke
  • Emily Yew
  • Eddie Tapia

Faculty Advisor

  • Dr. Geno Pawlak

Undergraduate Advisor

  • Pam Woointranon