The River Murray Works Unit (within the NSW Soil Conservation Service) manages the 200 km stretch of the River Murray between Hume Dam near Albury and the upper reaches of Lake Mulwala near Yarrawonga. Managing the spatial and attribute information about their river works, along with the various communications with landholders regarding when and where works can take place.
ESS has provided advice, technology and customisations to assist with managing this data, specifically:
- Tools for field-based data collection
- Community-based monitoring techniques and training
- Data collection and storage for a variety of practitioners, researchers and landholders
This allows 'on-demand' summary reports to be produced that describe the work completed. Through use of web-mapping and database management, ESS has provided the Works Unit with a single, accessible place for storing all their information, including:
- photos/videos;
- communications with landholders;
- spatial extent of the works installed;
- detailed attributes about the works;
- maintenance-focussed forms; and
- monitoring forms.
As a result of this data management approach, the Works Unit are now able to:
- quickly produce reports that describe and summarise the status of their assets;
- enter works information into their database 'in the field'
- share information between different members of the Works Unit; and
- see a complete picture of their assets in one, easy-to-navigate place.