DenunciApp : Diseño e implementación de una aplicación móvil para la denuncia de delitos ambientales

Abstract

The Combeima Canyon, in the foothills of the Nevado del Tolima snow-capped mountain, located in the Tolima department of Colombia, is renowned as an area of outstanding natural beauty. As much of the country, it is rich in biodiversity, with recorded sightings of 270-280 species of birds, and produces water for the city of Ibagué. As such, it has significant potential for eco-tourism, as well as being strategic for the well-being of many Colombians. Sadly, the area has suffered considerable environmental degradation, due to the presence of illegal mining, logging, unlicensed construction, and pervasive littering, among other activities which have a negative impact on the local environment. This work aims to address the problem that most environmental offences or crimes committed in the area go unreported, thus preventing the relevant authorities from taking appropriate action. The solution proposed is a smartphone application (App) aimed at ordinary citizens for reporting such incidents. The App enables users to record key details about any incident of concern that they witness, such as time, location and a textual description. Furthermore, items of multimedia evidence such as photographs, videos and audios can be integrated as part of the incident report, which is transmitted to a MongoDB database in the cloud, and subsequently provides a notification for the relevant environmental authority. This work proposes a design for such an App, and includes a prototype implementation for the Android platform.