Project overview

Increased pressure on Australia’s existing water supplies prompted LWA to investigate alternate water supplies, with Australia’s northern tropical river system identified as a potential alternate source. Before any development could commence, up-to-date scientific data needed to be collected  to avoid any adverse effects on the ecosystem.

NGIS Australia, in collaboration with GHD and Ecobyte managed the development of a GIS-based Information Management System for all rivers in Australia’s tropical north. This included:

• data acquisition, conversion and migration to a geo-database (the data were in a variety of formats and projection systems and had to be integrated into a single database).
• the development of a ‘Data Dictionary'
• software customisation, report generation
• recommendations for further development.

NGIS CEO, Paul Harris, presented the findings of the audit at the CSIRO’s Sustainable Futures for Australia’s Tropical Rivers forum held at the Charles Darwin University in February 2004.

Based on the quality and high level of usability of the data collected during the audit, both the LWA and the CSIRO are implementing natural resource management programs throughout the region to support the sustainable use, protection and management of Australia’s unique tropical river systems.

“Congratulations on the very professional way in which you have undertaken this project, particularly given the complex task of engaging with a range of state and territory data custodians.”
Brendan Edgar, Land and Water Australia Project Manager