Web application proposal written collaboratively by Joel Nicolow & Brian Dang
Due to Hawaii’s geographical isolation, the state has high biodiversity with over 10,000 species found nowhere else on earth [1]. However, Hawaii has experienced significant destruction of its dryland forest, with up to 95% destroyed, and only 40% of mesic forest remaining [2].
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 [3].
If people have the knowledge, they can plant native and canoe plants at their workplaces and homes. 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 (home gardens) [4].
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.
[1] Hawaii Statewide Assessment of Forest Conditions and Resource Strategy 2010. Issue 6: Conservation of Native Biodiversity. Department of Land and Natural Reasources. https://dlnr.hawaii.gov/forestry/files/2013/09/SWARS-Issue-6.pdf
[2] State of Hawaiʻi, Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) (2016) Hawaiʻi Forest Action Plan 2016, 306 p. Division of Forestry and Wildlife.
[3] 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
[4] Victory Garden at the National Museum of American History. https://gardens.si.edu/gardens/victory-garden/
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.
Users that have created a profile are able to browse plants, projects, and forums. Also given the ability to create, or reply to forums.
The creator account has the same privileges as the user class but with the added permission to edit and create plants and projects.
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.