FloraTheExplorer

Inspiration

With the world around us becoming more and more industrialized, the natural flora is disappearing bit by bit. In fact, there are species that go extinct before we every get a chance to learn about them, an event known as dark extinction. Learning this, we wanted to help combat the lack of awareness surrounding biodiversity. And what better way to do so than creating an interactive space, friendly for students and teachers alike to learn more about the vast biodiversity all around us.

What it does

FloraTheExplorer offers an interactive platform where students can explore flora worldwide through the Harvard University Herbaria Libraries database. By clicking on plants, they learn about their characteristics, ecological roles, and climate change impacts. The timeline tool shows plant discoveries and aims to inspire environmental conservation efforts.

How we built it

We started by becoming familiar with Harvard University Herbaria Libraries database by understanding what each file, heading, and trait meant in relation to millions of plants in the database. Once we figured out how to present such vast information in a more manageable way, we began connecting each plant to a leaflet map so users are able to visualize where the flora was found. Additionally, a timeline was included to show users the change of concentration of flora over certain period of times. After the users find a plant they want to learn more about, they can select learn more and they are brought to a page with a list of the genus, common name, and the location documented. Lastly, our AI chatbot, Flora, is there to help with any questions that users have about flora they discover within the database.

Challenges we ran into

With the vast size of the databases, we ran into problems with file sizes being too large, meaning we had to figure out how to cut down the size of the data to be feasible for our website and users. Additionally, we attempted to use MongoDB to work with the databases but we were not successful, though we did problem-solve another way to overcome our struggles.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are very proud of the interactive map that utilizes the longitudes and latitudes from the databases to signify where each plant was documented. On top of that, the interactive timeline allows for an additional level of information concerning the concentration of flora and the change in biodiversity over periods of time for users. Lastly, we are proud of Flora, the AI chatbot that allows users to ask questions about the flora in order to expand their knowledge even further.

What we learned

While building this website, we learned about the expansive world of biodiversity. We discovered how outdated the storing and cataloging systems herbariums use, one which doesn't allow for the average person to learn about the flora occupying this Earth. Through this, we also learned how to work with databases for the first time and how to work through all the challenges that come with them. Lastly, this was our first venture into using an AI Chatbot, which showed us the strengths and drawbacks of training and utilizing AI in our website.

What's next for FloraTheExplorer

In the future, we want to adjust the timeline to predict how climate change will affect plant species around the world in the coming years. This would give students and teachers a deeper understanding of what all this data about flora is really telling us about the world. Additionally, we would set up a centralized database to let us load more data and load it quicker.