Better Gardens 

Revolutionize the use of private gardens for biodiversity
Gardening, knowledge and simplicity come together to reform biodiversity strategies in private gardens.

WINDISCH, Switzerland (25 June 2021):

As part of the computer science project 3&4 at FHNW, our team cooperated with the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) to make the findings of their research more accessible to the public. Research by WSL and FiBL shows that private gardens are largely unused and could provide habitats for various species. As part of the “Better Gardens” project, we are developing an app that allows easy access to information about biodiversity, keep track of existing measures and interlink individual garden owners. As a result, we hope for more and especially more efficient use of private gardens for biodiversity.

Currently, many public green spaces are part of a biodiversity strategy from the department of environment. In these strategies, most privately owned green spaces are, despite their potential, completely left out. Some gardeners are aware of the problem with declining biodiversity and actively try to counteract it with their own garden. But much like with the tower of babel, without communication between individuals, this has little effect. A successful solution will have people working together and supporting each other, as much more can be achieved that way.

To achieve this communication and build this community, our solution is a mobile app with the aim of connecting gardeners, biodiversity enthusiasts and the government and allowing cooperative work. The main benefits of the app will be providing information about various species, habitat elements and the interaction of those to support the knowledge of our community. Finally, users can register habitat elements, create linking projects to support certain species and see what others are contributing to biodiversity. To make the app accessible, it will be available on common app stores.

Demo

Design