Structural Evaluation

The structural evaluation digitalises the official FOEN form "Spring Structural Assessment". You record information about watercourse structure, surroundings, impairments and connectivity.

Form Structure

The structural evaluation form is divided into sections that can be expanded individually:

Section A: General Location Information

• Spring type (Helocrene, Limnocrene, Rheocrene, etc.)
• Aspect and slope
• Substrate

Section B: Structural Quality

• Naturalness of the spring outlet
• Bed structure
• Bank structure
• Shading
• Deadwood

Section C: Water Quality and Hydrology

• Water turbidity
• Odour
• Foam formation
• Flow behaviour

Section D: Impairments

• Channelisation (intake, discharge, etc.)
• Land use in the vicinity
• Eutrophication

Section E: Connectivity

• Connection to running waters
• Woodland connectivity

Input Fields

Most fields are single selection or matrix selection. Some fields allow multiple answers.

Compass picker: The flow direction field — the compass direction in which the spring brook leaves the spring area — is entered on an 8-direction compass. Tap a direction to select it; tap the selected direction again to clear it. See The compass and the North indicator below. Numeric fields: Enter numbers directly. Commas and full stops are both recognised. Help texts: Every field has an ⓘ icon. Tap it to see an explanation from the official assessment manual.

The Compass and the North Indicator

Next to the flow-direction compass, SpringEval shows a small live North indicator. Using your device's magnetometer, its needle keeps pointing to geographic North as you turn — so you can hold the phone up in the field, read off where North actually is, and then tap the matching direction on the compass picker.

• The indicator is labelled Nord ↑ while a heading is available.
• If the device has no magnetometer, or the sensor is unavailable, it shows a dash (–) and the picker still works by manual tapping.
• Direction labels follow the app language (e.g. NE in English/French, NO in German for Nordost). The stored value is language-independent.

Entering Coordinates

In the location section, there are two ways to capture coordinates:

• GPS: Tap "Use GPS position". The app retrieves the current position from the device and converts WGS84 → LV95 automatically.
• Manual: Enter LV95 easting and northing directly.

Coordinate system: SpringEval stores and exports exclusively in LV95 (EPSG:2056).

Automatic Calculation

Once fields are filled in, SpringEval automatically calculates the ÖWS score. The rating appears as a colour-coded badge in the spring list and on the map.

Photos and Videos

The Structure form has its own media section. Tap the camera icon and choose one of four options: Take photo, Choose photo, Record video, or Choose video.

• Each item can be given a label, which is written into the exported xlsx.
• Video tiles show a play-button placeholder; double-tap to open the clip in the native player.
• When Media save location is set to App & camera roll (Settings), captures are also saved to the device camera roll with their label embedded as a caption.

On structural export, a photo flag is set in the xlsx and the media filenames are listed in the designated cell.

Completeness

A progress indicator shows how many mandatory fields have been filled. A green tick appears when all required fields are complete.