tech-for-a-greener-hawaii.github.io

Aloha Plants

Our Team

Ethan Burks - Undergraduate student at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Information and Computer Sciences

Austin Dang - Undergraduate student at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Information and Computer Sciences

Brian Dang - Undergraduate student at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Information and Computer Sciences

Justin Lisoway - Graduate student at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Finance and Information and Computer Sciences

Joel Nicolow - Undergraduate student at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Information and Computer Sciences and Public Health

Team Contract

Overview

The Problem

Due to Hawaiʻis geographical isolation Hawaiʻi is characterized by by high biodiversity with over 10,000 species found nowhere else on earth [2]. Today, up to 95% of Hawaii’s dryland forest has been destroyed while only 40% of mesic forest remains [3]. segue Hawaii imports around 80-90% of its food at a cost of around $3 billion annually. A 2012 report from the Office of Planning Department of Business and Economic Development and Tourism in cooperation with the Hawaii State Department of Agriculture estimates that just replacing 10% of imported foods with local grown food would amount to $313 million dollars remaining in the state (rather leaving the state economy) [1]. If people have the knowledge they can plant native and canoe plants at their work and homes including for food cultivation. Not only will this increase biodiversity and establish strong communities of native plants in our urban areas. But cultivation of food including with canoe and native plants can help alleviate the hawaii food crisis. Home gardens have a great potential to generate massive amounts of produce. For example by the end of World War II 40% of produce in the US was from (home) victory gardens [4].

Due to Hawaii’s geographical isolation, the state has high biodiversity with over 10,000 species found nowhere else on earth [2]. However, Hawaii has experienced significant destruction of its dryland forest, with up to 95% destroyed, and only 40% of mesic forest remaining [3].

Hawaii currently imports around 80-90% of its food, costing the state approximately $3 billion annually. However, a 2012 report from the Office of Planning Department of Business and Economic Development and Tourism, in cooperation with the Hawaii State Department of Agriculture, estimated that replacing just 10% of imported foods with locally grown food would keep $313 million dollars in the state economy [1].

If people have the knowledge, they can plant native and canoe plants at their workplaces and homes for food cultivation. This would increase biodiversity and establish strong communities of native plants in urban areas. Cultivation of food, including with canoe and native plants, can also help alleviate Hawaii’s food crisis. Home gardens have a great potential to generate significant amounts of produce. For example, by the end of World War II, 40% of produce in the US was from victory gardens [4].

[1] Increased Food Security and Food Self-Sufficiency Strategy. Office of Planning Department of Business Economic Development & Tourism. https://files.hawaii.gov/dbedt/op/spb/INCREASED_FOOD_SECURITY_AND_FOOD_SELF_SUFFICIENCY_STRATEGY.pdf

[2] https://dlnr.hawaii.gov/forestry/files/2013/09/SWARS-Issue-6.pdf

[3] State of Hawaiʻi, Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) (2016) Hawaiʻi Forest Action Plan 2016, 306 p. Division of Forestry and Wildlife.

[4] Victory Garden at the National Museum of American History. https://gardens.si.edu/gardens/victory-garden/

The Solution

The “Aloha Plants” website allows you to search and view different native plants, forums, and community projects. When searching for native plants it will provide information on how to grow native species and the specific areas to cultivate the plants. This aids the fauna in Hawaii by giving resources to the community to allow them to increase biodiversity by hand. The user will also be exposed to various resources that foster community interaction such as the forums page and community projects page on the website. This will also give the community information to grow their own foods, which will allow the user’s within the community to potentially alleviate the hawaii food crisis.The website will also allow creator users to add in unlogged native plant species to provide users a new native plant variety to grow. This will allow us to log all plant species in a cloud environment, which can be provided to scientific institutes such as the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources and The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Botany Department.

User Types

Non-user: Users that have not created a profile first visit the landing page where they can browse plants, projects, and forums. However, they will not be able to create or reply to forums.

User: Users that have created a profile are able to browse plants, projects, and forums. Also given the ability to create, or reply to forums.

Admin: Admin account is granted permissions to edit, create plants, projects, as well as forums just like the previous user types. They are also able to delete user accounts.

Use case ideas

User lands on landing page (accessible without account) example plants, projects, and forums are displayed and navbar links to plant browser, project browser, and forum page
New user, logs in, able to check relevant projects/recent forums. There will be a button “create forum” which allows users with accounts to create a forum (image, title, description, interests)
Admin user, logs in, able to search for projects, forums, people, and plants. Able to edit each card type (I.E projects, forums, people, and plants). There is a create button which opens a form allowing user to create a plant, project, or forum
Creator user, logs in, able to search for projects, forums, and plants. Able to edit each card type (I.E projects, forums, and plants). There is a create button which opens a form allowing user to create a plant, project, or forum

Beyond the basics

Implementing a chat system between users
Email notifications for new projects
Email Notification for deleted forum of user
Adding a upvote/rating system on forums

User Guide

When you first enter the page you are greeted with the aloha-plants landing page.

As a non user you are able to view the project browser:

And the plant browser:

To access the full page we must login

When you log-in as a default user you are redirected to the userhomepage which shows the 3 pages you have access to project plants and a new page forums

You may also edit your user profile and update your profile image

As a user you are unable to add in new projects, plants, or forums but you are given the ability to comment

Developer Guide

When you first log in as a developer you are also greeted with a landing page and given access to all basic user actions. But as developer you are now given access to the functionalities of add project,

.. Add plant

and add forum

Community Feedback

Amanda Mass - Website serves purpose to show case community projects as well as instant plant info. Could utilize a filter button as well as search bar. Sifting/scrolling for information is inconvenient. Likes logo, thinks logo is cute/inviting. Forum needs a rework.

Alie Wolpo - Look and feel of the forum page definetely needs improvement. Noticed bug where you are allowed to delete your own user as an admin. Likes the look of the plant and project cards. Would be easier to view projects and or plants based on filters instead of raw searching names.

Ian Hill - Does not know what the website is about upon entering landing page. Change landing page to give more information on the website. Make plant page more accessible on the landing page. For user homepage implement a limit of projects showcased, possibly click on project card to receive more info on project. Create pagination for forums as well. Scrolling through the forums page is awkward and feels empty.

Isabelle Camann - “I like the overall idea of the site, but I think it can be difficult to find projects that I’m interested in if I don’t already know the name. Ie: the project labels are not very useful, because there is no way to filter or search based on them.”

Kyle Aldover - “There are some inconsistent design elements, most pages have a white background, while the forums page randomly has a picture. I like the 2 green colors used throughout though. The forums page in general just doesn’t look or feel finished.”

Developer Guide

First, install Meteor.

Second, visit the Aloha Plants application github page, and click the “Use this template” button to create your own repository initialized with a copy of this application. Alternatively, you can download the sources as a zip file or make a fork of the repo. However you do it, download a copy of the repo to your local computer.

Third, cd into the aloha-plants/app directory and install libraries with:

$ meteor npm install

Fourth, run the system with:

$ meteor npm run start

If all goes well, the application will appear at http://localhost:3000.

Continuous Integration

Aloha Plants uses GitHub Actions to automatically run ESLint and TestCafe each time a commit is made to the default branch. You can see the results of all recent “workflows” at https://github.com/tech-for-a-greener-hawaii/aloha-plants/actions.