Development of a Web Application Algorithm for the Analysis and Visualization of Marine Animal Home Range Using R Shiny

Abstract

Recently, marine animals have been experiencing significant suffering due to marine waste. Therefore, continuous tracking and management of marine animals, as well as understanding their behavior patterns, have to study for effectively managing the marine ecosystem. This paper aims to design and implement a responsive system that can manage and support marine ecosystems by analyzing the home range and visualizing data of marine animals, including their location information. To achieve this objective, we developed an algorithm that utilizes open-source R-based methods such as minimum convex hull polygon and kernel density to estimate home range. Additionally, a Shiny-based reactivity web application was implemented to visualize the results on a map. As a result, researchers in the field of marine animals and marine ecology were able to analyze behavior patterns using attribute conditions such as the type and location information transmission time of marine animals without a separate GIS analysis program. In addition, the analysis results were visually presented on a map to enable a clear and intuitive comprehension of the movements of marine animals. If the system is continuously developed through research in the future, we expect to efficiently manage the marine ecosystem and provide even more insightful information.