Mergin Maps | Data Collecting for the Win

I love collecting data. Some might say I have a bit of a strange relationship with timing, counting, plotting and collecting information in relation to things I do. Don’t get me wrong, I can do a task without monitoring these things, although it’s not my ideal way. I acknowledge that not all data is useful, or beneficial, and at times, it may be rather pointless to collect. However I like useless information as well as useful information. I don’t discriminate.

Aside from collecting data relating to my recreational pursuits such as knitting, gardening, plant propagation and bushwalking, I also collect a lot of data for work. Which is where Mergin Maps has come in and made my life so much easier and smoother.

This post is probably going to send you to sleep if you don’t live or play in the world of data collecting. So no offence taken if you close the browser window and go back to watching weird stuff on youtube or whatever it was you were doing before you got here.

Mergin Maps is an app that runs on your phone or tablet to collect spatial data. That makes it sound pretty basic and simple, which it is in a way, but it’s also pretty powerful and has so far proved to be capable of everything I need and want for collecting field data. Once you set up your project with all the layers you want, you simply sync it with QGIS on your desktop and the app on your phone and away you go.

I always would use a Garmin hand held GPS unit when I was out in the field. I would have my study areas loaded on and use it to take waypoints which would then relate to the notes in my notebook. Old school, pencil and paper kind of data collecting. It worked, and there is nothing wrong with this method. The annoying bit would be getting back to the office and then having to spend all the time extracting the way points and then transcribing my notebook and collating all that info. Even though I have pretty neat handwriting and pride myself on my notebook organisation, there were times I would be confused and wonder what a collection of letters I had written were meant to mean…

That’s where Mergin has made this whole process quicker and easier. Especially if you are working with other people who are also collecting data for the same project. Using Mergin makes it all streamlined and ensures that everyone collects their data in the same way and is easy to extract and use it for whatever you need to use it for.

When I am out doing a field survey, I generally collect data on a wide range of things. Locations of threatened flora, big giant trees, nests and dens, extent of vegetation communities, weeds, extensive species lists of all the plants present and pretty much anything interesting or noteworthy. Sometimes it will just be a single point, other times I will need to draw polygons around areas, it might be a quick note or a longer description. There might be one point or 27 thousand points. Mergin does it all.

A newish function is the tracking layer, which is very very useful. Especially for those of us who walk with our heads down and could easily end up going in circles if we don’t pay attention. It’s also useful if you go back to the site for some reason, you can see where you have been without having to remember to load the tracks back on to a device.

As you can see in the screenshot, I have google satellite imagery as my base. This will only work when you have reception, but you can save tiles and set up offline line maps through QGIS. The red square is my study area which I add in QGIS and I have also added layers which have threatened flora and nest records which I downloaded from the NVA to give me an idea of what’s been recorded in the area.

You will see from the other image, the layers I have in my Mergin project. Field Data Collection, Seed Collection and Polygons are layers I have created to enter my data in. The rest are just for reference and I don’t edit them on the phone or add anything to them.

My ‘Field Data Collection’ layer is the one I use the most. It’s set up with drop down fields to easily categorise things into flora, fauna, weeds, threatened species, notes, veg descriptions etc. There are fields for DBH, count, area occupied, reproductive stage and a whole lot more. You can have as many field as you like, they can be number fields, text fields, multiline fields or dropdown boxes pre filled with selections.

Photos can be added to points. I haven’t made use of that much yet though. We are going to test drive it. The only drawback I can see if you are working in a big team is that some people take loads of photos. Which is awesome, but there is a limit on the storage and I’m not sure how much they would take up. It could be a case of ensuring you download your photos and then remove them, but that could be a nightmare to manage. I’ll update if I do give it a crack.

Another useful function is the ability to have default values entered into fields. So eastings and northings, date, observer and maybe altitude… I remember wanting to add altitude a while ago, but by the time I got back to the computer I clearly forgot about it and have only just remembered now. I’ll now promptly forget again until the next time I remember it.

Generally I am out doing field work on my own. But sometimes I will have a field buddy and so far, this set up has been super easy for everyone to use. I have ‘mandatory’ next to each fields which HAVE to be filled in and so far its working well. If we are working somewhere with reception we can each sync our Mergins and then we can see each others points too, which is very useful. Someone can even be back at the office and sync the project on their computer and get real time data updates!

Set up your project and everything you want on it before you go out into the field. Check it is working. Check everything is there that you want to be there. Even though Mergin is easy to use, it can take some time to get your head around it and set up your project as you want it. I use it solely for field data collection and have one dedicated project just for that. It took some fine tuning, but it’s perfect for me now. If you want more in-depth info on how I have it set up, with fields and how I extract the data to use then feel free to drop me a line. I am always happy to share all the things I have learnt and the ways I do things.

Sync early and sync often. If you drop your phone in the river and it is gone forever, so is your data. Unless of course you have synced early and synced often. Then it is forever in the cloud and you won’t have lost anything. Expect an expensive phone.

Check you are logged in with your project downloaded before you go. I have been out with people though who haven’t opened Mergin and made sure they are logged in before they go. Sometimes it is ok, if you have already downloaded your project. You can just log back in later. But if you haven’t downloaded the project to your phone and you get to somewhere with no reception then you are screwed. In that case you better have a back up Garmin or some other waypoint taker.

Take a battery pack if your battery is a quick drainer. Mine is an iPhone 14 and I have never had a problem with battery life. I can spend 8 hours in the field running Mergin and using it a lot and still get back to the car with at least 20% battery life. I still always take a back up though. You never know if you might get stuck somewhere for a few days, at least you will be able to play solitaire while you wait for rescue. Assuming you called them of course.