Ground is an open-source, map-first data collection platform built in collaboration with non-profits and international organizations with the goal of driving sustainability impact at scale.

Ground is designed for use by non-technical users with little to no special training. Our goal is to provide a “just right” data collection solution that meets the needs of community organizers, conservationists, humanitarian workers, and researchers.

The platform consists of a web app for survey management, and an Android app for map-based and structured data collection. Key features:

• Geospatial and structured data collection. Support for hand-drawn and GPS-based points and polygons, as well as for common data types (text, numbers, multiple-choice questions) and photos.
• Task-based survey management. Data collection sites may be determined a priori by survey organizers, and/or opportunistically by data collectors.
• Robust offline support. Data is automatically synchronized in the background, even after the app has been closed and the device restarted.
• Offline map imagery. Cloud-free mosaics based on Sentinel-2 satellite imagery can be easily downloaded and viewed offline.
• Beautiful and usable. Built on Google’s Material Design 3 design system to be highly intuitive and nice to look at.

Important: Ground is not an officially supported Google product. It is being developed on a best-effort basis.

Stay informed

Join the Ground announcements mailing list to keep up-to-date on progress and latest news.

Contribute

If you’d like to contribute to Ground’s development, check out the README and CONTRIBUTING guides in our repositories on GitHub to get started:

• ground-platform for hosted components, including the web app, Cloud Functions, and Firebase configuration.

• ground-android for the Ground Android client.