Client Success Story
Development of a Revegetation Prioritisation Tool
Dean Robertson, Wimmera Catchment Management Authority
The Wimmera Catchment Management Authority (WCMA), based
in Horsham Victoria undertakes strategic management under
the umbrella of the WCMA Catchment Strategy. The CMA manages
and funds a remnant vegetation management and enhancement
(often revegetation) works program. Critical to this work
is the capacity for catchment managers to both classify (and
prioritise) remnant vegetation and to identify, in broad terms,
the relative potential for revegetation activity.
Dean Robertson, WCMA's Senior Biodiversity Officer, has the
ongoing challenge of providing strategic advice to the WCMA
on the priority of works related to enhancement of the catchments
remnant vegetation, as well as coordination of the WCMA's
revegetation program.
Mr Robertson led a tender process that selected Spatial Vision
to develop a GIS-based application that would enable Wimmera
CMA staff to classify and prioritise remnant native vegetation
and to identify the relative potential for revegetation activity.
Spatial Vision's solution involved two components:
(A) To classify and prioritise each remnant on a weighted
index. A scoring technique was implemented that uses remnant
size, conservation status, quality, distance from core elements,
and landscape context.
(B) To determine revegetation potential. Spatial Vision implemented
a “cost distance” paradigm where a relative “cost”
surface is developed from key features such as major rivers,
water bodies, wetlands and areas of high roadside conservation
value. The resultant cost surface is then used in conjunction
to generate a revegetation potential or attractiveness index.
The GIS application architecture allows for easy exploration
of management options. Each analysis run is fully configurable
and can be archived as a unit comprising input/output data
and parameter tables. The application has been deployed to
WCMA in the form of a Visual Basic Dynamic Link Library.
Mr Robertson was impressed by Spatial Vision's ability to
take the core concepts that he had been developing and work
with him to design a flexible and powerful tool to enable
WCMA to explore strategic management options for remnants
and revegetation in an efficient way.
"Wimmera CMA would certainly count the RRCP tool as
a success. It does everything we expected it to do and have
yet to fully explore how much we can do with it. We specifically
asked for the prioritisation component to be alterable so
that we could explore alternatives. We are currently using
the tool in its default setting but plan to explore how the
picture changes if the relative importance of the parameters
are varied."
Of the two key components of the tool Mr Roberston went on
to say, "The remnant prioritising component is easy to
understand and is being used in a small way to target efforts
in engaging landholders with relatively high priority remnants.
The attractiveness of revegetation part has been an excellent
tool for capturing the imagination of people planning revegetation
works. It has been a fantastic guide.
WCMA is currently using the tool at a sub-catchment level
to aid in planning as well as exploring the possibilities
that the flexibility of the tool offers. WCMA is also considering
several key enhancements to the tool such as the additional
of threatened species.
Copyright © Spatial Vision, Tuesday, 9-August-2005
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