As part of the Comprehensive Regional Assessments undertaken for the Regional Forest Agreements finalised in the coastal Regions of NSW to create a Comprehensive and Adequate Reserve system; NPWS has acquired and generated a range of datasets relating to the conservation of biodiversity in the Eden, Northern and Southern CRA regions. This project would make the data of which NPWS is custodian, created in the design of the Comprehensive and Adequate Reserve system available.

Research community needs, capabilities and expectations relating to biodiversity information and natural resources information. Document this as b aseline information, against which the success of CANRI initiatives can later be evaluated. Analyse findings to identify strategic priorities for CANRI that improve community access to information. Identify "market segments" (people with like needs and capabilities). Provide guidance and make recommendations to refine/develop CANRI initiatives that meet the needs of identified segments. Use the research to guide [...more]

I propose that:

1. We improve the registration system of PlantNET so that low-level users can have free access to the general information currently available on this website, without being required to register.

2. Higher-level users, who may be required to register, will have access to other forms of information based on being recognised as users that have been approved to access these data.

3. Modify Web interface to PlantNET to reflect different classes of users, namely (1) general users that have free access to all information provided at [...more]

Water quality information users have an increasing requirement for access to data in a more timely manner. The use of Internet technology is considered one of the most effective tools in dissemina ting information to wider audiences. It is the intention of the DLWC to publish water quality data collected from various sources so as to provide ready access to the information. Due to the nature of these datasets, it is planned that project development will take in three phases:

Phase 1 2001/02

• To publish water quality summary information of st [...more]

The Biodiversity Information Project has established a Biodiversity Information Working Group (BIWG) chaired by NPWS and with representatives from Agriculture, Australian Museum, DLWC, DUAP (RACD), EPA, Fisheries, Royal Botanic Gardens, State Forests. Representatives from nine agencies meet regularly to oversee and discuss the development of the project. A Project Manager has been appointed to coordinate the Biodiversity Information Project and to consult various agencies and community groups regarding biodiversity information access issues. With allowance for on-c [...more]

WISE (Water Information System for the Environment) is an innovative software package for managing information on water for an entire catchment. WISE is a collection of everything published on a catchment linked to the catchment’s wetlands or estuaries, rivers and creeks or the catchment itself with multiple links and multimedia material. It has, at its core, several databases (primarily bibliographic, content and sites) and a multimedia system with photographs, videos and sound files. The system is produced as a CD-Rom with the Macquarie Catchment currently on sal [...more]

The Australian Museum has the responsibility for maintaining a Master Names List of the species of NSW. A large number of species that occur in NSW are held in the Australian Museum Collections but are not in the Master Names List because no formal catalogues have been published. This project would extract species from the Museum’s collection databases that don’t already occur in the Master Names List and publish them to the web through the Master Names List. This would then enable the community to access information and maps on these species through FaunaNet.

This Family of beetles is important from a conservation perspective and for understanding the distribution of biodiversity. They are mostly predatory and often highly endemic. They are a useful means of monitoring environmental health and are a dominant constituent of beetles caught in pitfall traps in systematic surveys. This key would enable internet users to identify Carabid beetles to the level of genera.

The objective of this project is to incorporate an I nternet-accessible (electronic) images of herbarium collections into the RBG's NSW Collections database as a resource that can be used by the community to confirm plant identifications. This proposal is a continuation of a pilot project begun in 2000.

The identification of rare and threatened plants or potentially weedy species requires rapid recognition. Community members who are responsible for managing natural resources (such as forests, parks and reserves) require plant identification tools (the [...more]

The objective of this project is to present Internet-accessible current names and synonyms for the liverworts of New South Wales. As part of the PlantNET website, these names will represent a primary and dynamic resource for the community. The master list will provide the basis on which other tools can be built - identification modules, descriptions, images, distribution.

These plants are an important component of the States vegetation, having significant functions in water retention and erosion prevention in many habitats. Tools are required that [...more]

The objective of this project is to present Internet-accessible interactive identification tools for the higher plants that occur in New South Wales. As part of the PlantNET website, these tools will represent a primary resource that will assist in the identification of higher plants by using diagnostic features. This proposal seeks financial assistance to accelerate the completion of a long-term RBG-funded initiative, that will compliment the EucaLink and WattleWeb websites.

These tools will enable community groups, who are responsible [...more]

There is a plethora of invertebrate web si tes around the globe, many of them would be useful to the NSW government and non-government communities. The Australian Museum has previously assembled a database of such sites, however this was never published on the web and has become out of date. This project would review the existing database – add to it and see that it is published to the web under the FaunaNet banner.

Maps, and underlying biodiversity datasets, of key habitats and linking corridors for forest fauna of north-east NSW will be made available on the Internet. This is a summary and consolidation of NSW NPWS’s extensive natural heritage data set. It has been derived to inform community-based regional planning programs (Regional Vegetation Management Committees, Catchment Management Boards, etc) and describes an overall framework for regional conservation planning in north-east NSW. A number of Landcare groups have adopted the framework as the basis for a more strategi [...more]

The project will adapt data sets held by NSW Fisher ies and the NSW Marine Parks Authority for internet access. Data sets are GIS and relational databases describing aspects of marine and estaurine biodiversity in NSW.

Data include maps of major ocean features, estuarine ecosystem types, intertidal rocky shore, beach, reef, island, seagrass, mangrove and saltmarsh habitats, fish and invertebrate communities, and surveys of individual species like the Grey Nurse shark.

Depending on resources, maps of environmental condition, threats to marine biodi [...more]

An ANZLIC-compliant metadata collection tool based on COGENT metadata management system will be made ava ilable on the Internet enabling data custodians to create and update metadata records for the NRDD online. MET Online will ensure that decision makers and general community have access to up-to-date information about natural resources data. The availability of metadata to facilitate discovery and access to natural resources data supports the decision making process and leads to more effective natural resource management decisions. This project will contribute to [...more]

To provide the eleven Shire Councils members of The Murray Regional Orgnisation of Councils in t he Western to Mid Murray region access to consistent GIS systems. Noting that most Shires in this region do not have GIS at all as part of their operations. The availability of such a system will enable the recording of the Roadside Vegetation Management Plans (RVMP) and natural resource information for the Shire. The RVMP have recently been compiled and adopted by the councils. The system can be maintatined by the members of MurrayROC and would support improved effici [...more]

There is a substantial amount of information contained within reports, unpublished theses, files, and datasets in Northern NSW pertaining to estuarine and coastal ecology. A considerable amount of this material is not readily accessible, especially to the wider community, but also to various management agencies and committees. The formation of the National Marine Science Centre in Coffs Harbour is an opportunity to aggregate this information, provide links to datasets, improve general community accessibilty to information and therefore improve the capacity to man [...more]

A website/portal that corroborates research, information and updates on the various nuclear programs both in operation and proposed, for Austral ia. In conjuction with the LGSA (Nuclear Free Zones) the University of Western Sydney and PANR (community organisation), this site will act as a receptacle for data and a meeting point for interested parties, particularly concerned Councils and Councillors, non-Government Organisations and members of the general public. This site will seek to improve the knowledge in the broader community about the nuclear industry and prom [...more]

The main objective of this project is to (re)develop dataservers to deliver data in an OGC compliant environment. There are two typ es of servers. The Web Map Server (WMS) which delivers an image and a Web Feature Server (WFS) which delivers GML as output. (

An integr ated data base of 5,000 freely available, but otherwise hard to locate, environmental education resources collected over the last ten years by the Manly Environment Centre will be developed for the CANRI site. CANRI users will be able to use the information listed under topics on the data base to order publications direct from government, N.G.O.and industry groups. The range of materials include everything from postcards to technical reports.

This project integrates Catchment Management Plans with Regional and Local Environment Plans. Starting point is a project ‘Template’ for Regional Plans accredited under the latest inter-governmental Agreement on ‘Salinity and Water Quality’. Sub-catchment Action Plans can then be slotted into the appropriate Local Government Action Plans. Integration of LEPS into the over-arching REP could then be piloted with the Sydney Catchment Authority during the first half of 2002.

Provide commonly-used IT capacity via an Internet ‘Portal’ which enables accredited community group partners to contribute more effectively to CANRI, Landcare, Bushcare, Coastcare, Reserves and other Natural Resource Management public participation programs - across all regions and all levels of Government. Prototype with NCC in 2001/2002 and offer to other Stakeholders in 2002 and beyond.

This proje ct is an integral component of the iPlan framework that the Department of Urban Affairs and Planning (DUAP) is developing and implementing. iPlan is the framework for the provision of integrated, computer-based web-enabled systems to make planning information and services easily available to users

PIO Ph 2 will build on the proof of concept developed in Phase 1 which involves a partnership with 4 local councils to provide access to detailed spatial and related planning information. PIO Ph 2 will extend the range of textual and spatial data avail [...more]

A database of vegetation clearing and cropping activities in the Western Division of NSW will be made available on the Internet, starting with the 13,500 records dating back to 1986, which are held by the RAMS project Inter-Agency Management Group. The database will be maintained on the Net by the Group, and it will be used by natural resource management committees and policy developers in developing and implementing management plans and policies . RAMS is possibly the longest running large scale environmental monitoring project using remote sensing in Australia.< [...more]

The aim of the RePlant p roject is to allow State Forests, the forestry industry and individuals to submit plantation and reafforestation proposals for review and approval into DLWC's plantation and reafforestation management system through a portal linked to the CANRI website.

RePlant will have a spatial viewer that will allow users to draw maps of proposed plantations and ascribe textual descriptions to the maps.

The maps and associated proposals will be automatically checked by a decision support module for feasibility. If feasible, according to [...more]

Community Reserve Proposals (CRP) require access to various layers of government data. Promotion of incentives for Conservation Agreements and Native Vegetation retention on private land area examples used to complement National Parks and other areas being protected on public land. ‘Reserves’ is a mandatory module within each Regional Plan, as specified in ANZECC Guidelines for the National Reserve System and their National Framework for Management of Native Vegetation.

This project will further develop Internet based tools, systems, and provide more and a greater range of natural resource data to the Internet community. The focus will be on providing additional information from the major water agencies not yet part of the system. This information will be provided through a single Internet location by using a user friendly mapping interface. This site will be "the" principal location for obtaining a State view of river flow data and will be compatible with and linked to other natural resource data.

The [...more]

This project is a fol low-on to the successful SNAP Phase 1 (SADIM) project delivered in CANRI FY2000-2001. It aims to build on the foundations laid by Phase 1 to deliver soil and land maps and information to the NSW community via the CANRI framework. This project complements the SPADE Plus project by providing a simple, low-cost solution to address the requirements of general information users who do not require access to a complex spatial viewer or live query capability to a spatially-enabled database.

SMS is a series of Web pages that provide access to a [...more]

This project is a follow-on to the successful SNAP Phase 1 (SADIM) project deliver ed in CANRI FY2000-2001. It aims to build on the foundations laid by Phase 1 to deliver soil and land maps and information to the NSW community via the CANRI framework. Soil and land information is recognised as a CANRI data priority, and SPADE Plus aims to address this by building on the existing mode of delivery (the SPADE spatial viewer for soil profile information) to deliver hundreds of kinds of point and polygon maps of both direct and interpreted soil and land attributes. These [...more]

The Sydney South Coast Groundwater Data Improvement project endeavours to-

A: Implement quality control measures in the input of groundwater data (to be done by Dept. Staff); and

B: Improve the current Sydney South Coast (SSC) groundwater data. Funding is being sought to employee a Data Entry Person for one year to improve the data gaps and quality of the Groundwater Database System.

The improvement of the groundwater data is essential in the provision of up to date groundwater information for

• Water Managemen [...more]

The project encompasses a new data model for current information on the geology of New South Wales to be com piled at best available scale data with a minimum scale quality of 1:250 000. The model will allow datasets to be assembled for use as a surface or outcrop ‘layer’, a bedock interpretation of solid geology and eventually a basement model.

Existing data covers a large area of the State and is being incorporated into this dataset. Gaps occur in the bedock/solid geology data and in some of the surface material. The project aims to complete a surface a [...more]

This is a very simpl e and straight forward tool for accessing threatened species references which is required by the community. It will improve their understanding of biodiversity and use the information to complete the 8 part test when required.

The aim of the ThreatRef project is to allow the community and external bodies to access and input (ie. exchange) threatened species references through an Internet portal that is linked to the CANRI website. It is proposed this database will become part of DLWC’s Enterprise database.

A threatened species re [...more]

A directory of and access to guidelines and contacts for NSW government grant investment programs and other resources available to assist industry and community groups, local government and State agencies to implement projects concerned with natural resources and environment management (NREM) – linked to regional investment priorities and actual investments made.

Current wide dispersal and inaccessibility of information on the scores of sources of government investment is a significant inhibitor to implementation of action in an integrated way in line with [...more]

The main objective of this project is to develop additional capability in the simple generic user interface to handle vector data. This will improve visual qu ality of the map, give more flexibility in the user interface, require less reloading of maps and quicker download times.

The aim of the VegEx project is to allow the community and external bodies to access and input (ie. exchange) vegetation data within DLWC’s Enterprise database through an internet portal that is linked to the CANRI website. The community and external users will only require an internet browser and internet access to use VegEx.

VegEx will adhere to the standards for vegetation surveys agreed to by the Department of Land and Water Conservation (DLWC), The Royal Botanic Gardens (RBG) and the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS).

VegEx will al [...more]

A database of waste audits will be made available on the Internet, star ting with the 1,888 audits already held by the NSW Waste Boards. The database would be maintained by the NSW Waste Boards, and would support waste minimisation and management decision-making across NSW, and any other local/regional/state organisation collecting waste audit information. By developing waste minimisation and management tools, it will reduce the unsustainable pressure on natural resources.

The waste audit database responds to the needs of the NSW Waste Boards, NSW EPA, and t [...more]

CANRI should upgrade its data servers to support the emerging OpenGIS Web Feature Server (WFS) specification to achieve the following benefits.

OGC compliance: Use of external standards is fundamental to CANRI’s open technical strategy and makes it more "future-proof"

More functionality: Self-describing behaviour; GML compliance allows GML->SVG rendering of polygon, line features etc; Transactions (updating features).

Alignment with CANRI’s strategic partners: the DUAP Planning Information Online Pilot will [...more]

ACIS is conceived as the primary on-line repository of data relating to fish distribution and abundance in NSW. Priority is given to those species that are of concern in a conservation sense (threatened, protected and alien species), however ACIS is intended to eventually bring together the majority of existing data for both marine and freshwater fish species.

The current proposal builds on the pilot ACIS project completed during the previous year, where the database was developed and community access provided via a searchable internet interface. The pilot [...more]

CANRI have recently launched an initiative to make natural resource information more accessible to the general community. To do this, it must make it easy for:

• Information sources to be registered into and available on the CANRI network
• Information users to find, evaluate and use these sources.

Indeed the ultimate success of CANRI will lie directly in the amount to which it is used.

Our submission proposes to deliver the tools and knowledge people need to participate effectively in the CANRI network and will thereby c [...more]

The Community Map Builder is a web based map data entry tool that allows individuals to annotate maps and surveys available on the web through systems like CANRI. It would create an opportunity for more interactive communications on subjects involving geographical and physical features—topics where text alone is limiting. The Community Map Builder would also have the facility to collect and collate information and annotations entered by individuals in a master database so they can be viewed by others.

This tool will be useful to any agency, c [...more]

An important component of the CANRI system is the User Interface. This submission proposes to dev elop a set of java-bean components that can be plugged together to produce a browser-based front-end that can access CANRI data. The Java component would be usable by anyone with basic JavaScript skills to build a very functional interface into the CANRI system.

The main objective of this project is to develop a web-based system wherein registered users will have the capability to download data (spatial or aspatial) in the format that they require. At present, natural resources data are held by different agencies in a number of formats. This makes the transfer and/or sharing of data between agencies more difficult if not impossible.

The preferred formats exchange are (compressed) GML or shape files for vector formats and GEOTIFF for image formats. Other data formats may be considered if required.

The objective of this project is to update, purchase, process and publish a series of topographic datasets wi thin the CANRI-framework in vector format. This will make a large number of topographic entities available to all CANRI users, across all map scales relevant to CANRI interfaces and applications.

Datasets are:

1. NSW Digital State Reference Map (Roads, Waterbodies, Rail, Suburbs, Rural Land Protection, Land Districts and others, where available in generalised form for use at medium-large scale)
[...more]

This is a CANRI project de ferred from the first half of the year at the request from the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA). The aims of the project are to build on the process of data collection from agencies generated by the NSW state of the environment (SoE) report and strengthen its linkages to the data available via CANRI. The data collected for NSW SoE purposes tends to represent the most currently available, comprehensive environmental information from more than 8 NSW agencies on more than 60 core environmental indicators agreed to by the Australian [...more]

Update of existing SoEdirect data and information

The main objective of this project is to develop a tool to find the spatial context of a named object or region. The tool can be linked to applic ations so users can find their area of interest or could be used to define the spatial extend when georeferencing documents.

The main objective of this project is to develop a tool to georeference documents, store this information and have the ability to search this information using mapping interfaces (coordinates) and text search criteria. This will give users the ability to access text documents from a map or a map from a document.

The GreenWeb-S ydney program encourages a consistent and cooperative approach to revegetation in the Sydney region. By working locally within the framework of GreenWeb, Councils and the community will create a green web of bushland corridors, protecting remnant bushland of conservation value and thus enhancing Sydney's rich biodiversity and natural heritage.

GreenWeb Sydney Online will add value to this program by publishing:

• Local Plant Communities
• Policies for Protection of Vegetation
[...more]

An interactive database of Human Impacts in Coastal NSW will be made availa ble on the Internet. The primary source of information will come from information collected during the compilation and ‘paper’ publication of the Human Impact on Australian Beaches Report by Surfrider Foundation Australia. The Human Impacts Report covered issues such as Land Use and Development, Non-Native Flora, Direct Pollution Sources, Pollution via Catchment, Litter, Beach Management, Public Access and Recreational Use. The product will use a GIS format for that is compatible with the cu [...more]

This project complements existing web developments for Landcare, Bushcare, Coastcare, and other community groups ‘accredited’ under Government funded NRM programs. Group collaboration on Catchment & Regional Plans, and Community Environmental Monitoring (CEM) are deliverables. Document & ‘Knowledge Management’ based on repository of internal & external sources. This capacity building project is similar to web applications suitable for other independent organisations.

Consistent National Data Standards and agreed ‘Categories’ of Information are urgently required across CANRI agencies to support implementation of Integrated Catchment/Regional/Local Planning. Data for Themes such as ‘Land’, ‘Water’, ‘Salinity’, and ‘Vegetation’ have been specified in 2000/01 under ANZECC, SoE, and National Land and Water Audit Projects and can now be implemented in NSW. Starting point is DLWC Data being implemented to support ‘Salinity & Water Quality’ projects.

CANRI data sources are each currently set up to draw with a fixed map symbol, so when several layers are combined the resulting map is often hard to read. CANRI needs a mechanism to allow application configurers, and sometimes users, to customise the colours and symbols used to present map layers in order to combine them into a workable map.

An Internet based service assisting community groups to adopt user friendly monitoring methods and register and publish marine and coastal monitoring survey data through the ASDD and Australian Coastal Atlas (ACA). The service will be build upon a WA developed process and paper based manual, which is currently being adopted by WA community groups.

Conservation and Land Management (CALM) WA and the WA Branch of the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) have together developed the Marine Community Monitoring Manual to assist community groups and indi [...more]

This project proposes the serving of the NPWS core datasets – Service Estate, Wilderness & Vegetation to the Natural Resources Atlas

NPWS has an extensive range of images of biodiversity a nd natural resource related images. This project would make this image library more widely available through its digitisation and the provision of a database and application for searching the library.

This project will buil d on the pilot study performed in 2000/2001 for the provision of a State of the Parks report accessible on the Internet. The State of the Parks report indicates the success of the National Parks & Wildlife Service in achieving performance indicators on a park-by-park basis for the NPWS estate of conservation reserves.

The Australian Museum has a large number of published taxonomic keys which a re "trapped" in hard copy journals and books. These keys in their current form are inaccessible to all but a handful of scientists. This project would identify, extract and publish these keys under the FaunaNet website which is a direct link to CANRI. These keys would then be accessible to students at all education levels, interest groups, consultants, other Government Departments and many others. These keys would be used for many purposes ranging from casual collecting interest, [...more]

At present the NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service Wildlife Atlas Internet site provides a search able database of records of animals & plants throughout NSW. However, this is a database of observation records and hence its usefulness in any particular area is limited by the survey intensity in that locality. As part of its biodiversity research and conservation activities, the National Parks & Wildlife Service has generated predicted distributions based on Wildlife Atlas and other records combined with modelling based on environmental and habitat vari [...more]

The objective of this pr oject is to present Internet-accessible interactive identification tools for the eucalypts of New South Wales. As part of the PlantNET website, these tools will represent a primary resource that will assist in the identification of these important trees. This proposal seeks financial assistance to enable the rapid completion of a long-term RBG-funded initiative, that will compliment the WattleWeb website

Since these plants are a dominant component of the Vegetation of the State, tools that enable rapid recognition are u [...more]

Currently there is very limited information about marine species and assemblages occurring at the seven Aquatic Reserves in NSW . The Office of Conservation (NSWF) is acutely aware of the need for good quality baseline information on the marine communities of all Aquatic Reserves under their jurisdiction and that site-specific surveys are necessary to enable this information to be obtained.

As CANRI grows, there is an increasing need for better technical coordination to ensure the framework as a w hole continues to work efficiently and can be extended by different companies with minimal learning curve and maximum reuse of existing components.

Equally the need for an over-arching and extensible data model is becoming pressing. This project will establish a central repository to maintain the CANRI system architecture and data model using industry-leading software development tools.

Develop a generic facility for custodians of datasets to provide restricted access to specific datasets by requesting a username and a pa ssword. Other options for authentication may be considered (eg. Public Key Certificates).

Through the metadata custodians can set access restrictions. User management will be the responsiblity of the custodian.

1) Natural Resource Management information inquiries are equally divided between calls for place based conditions and seeking advice of a general nature – eg what can I do about soil compaction or how do I buil d a track that will not wash away; or how do I get possums out of the roof or what is the best way to attract birds to my garden 2) Government Agencies and other institutions have traditionally produced glossy brochures to meet these needs. The brochures are often withdrawn because logos or contact details change or simply go out of print. The information [...more]

Despite some suggestions to the contrary, it is not very clear how to make a basic geographic point layer that is currently online available to CANRI using DSLITE. It is totally unclear on how one would then make use of this CANRI generated point layer plus the CANRI supplied base maps in ones existing onlin e application.

Proper high quality documention of this process with a worked examples representing at least one live, public application would remove one of the pricipal barriers – basically ignorance of how to use tools like DSLITE - to greater particip [...more]

This project aims to determine and demonstrate the feasibility of using native XML database technologies to solve the issues of managing distributed catalogues of heterogenous web services. Modern Web Services architectures use XML files to describe the capabilities of online services – however there are many types of services, and evolving and experimental capabilities. By using native XML technology we hope to isolate the data management effort from the many variations of document, making it easy to deploy and upgrade services within the CANRI framework.

[...more]

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NCC is the peak environment group for 127 science, educationand environment groups in NSW. It has approximately 15 statewide members, 8 regional members and 104 local or specific interest groups.

There is no standard publishing engine for the vast amount of community collected natural resource data, nor is there a standard format which allows the collected information to be readily accessed and integrated into other existing information datasets.This proposal will enable environmental groups to directly contribute their knowledge and allow that information [...more]

The Department of Land and Water Conservation has outlined ‘a new way of doing business’ that is based on a more rigorous approach to information management (Informing Investment Decisions, DLWC October 2000). Participants in a new market-based landscape management process will have access to the information they require to make investment decisions.

The required restructuring of the department’s information environment will address improvements to corporate databases (Enterprise Database), modelling capacity, decision support, and data integ [...more]