When one considers that the Great Barrier Reef contains about 3000 reefs and around 1000 islands; includes vast lengths of coastline with critical habitats such as mangroves and seagrasses (also found in deep water); furnishes sites for endangered species such as turtle and dugong; supports a plethora of commercial activities including trawling and line fishing, tourist daytrip and dive operations; is used for the collection of marine fauna for sale; and is used for a myriad of recreational activities, it becomes apparent that the information required to plan and subsequently zone is mind-boggling and potentially one huge mess! Enter spatial analysis with information technology to the rescue.
The development of GIS has been less than ideal in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority in terms of staffing and infrastructure, however, we have managed to develop a system which is available on-line throughout the Authority to virtually any user, and which contains a wide variety of data sets pertaining to topography, natural resources, jurisdictional boundaries, socioeconomic issues and aerial surveillance, as well as a variety of scanned aerial photographs and satellite images and many cartographic and modelling tools.
The initial pilot study into developing a GIS at the Authority, carried out by the Australian Survey and Land Information Group (AUSLIG) in 1990-91, was the result of a gathering impetus created by the birth of a series of new hardware and software technologies which were making spatial analysis and mapping with computers a literal reality. A variety of recommendations came out of the study including the proposed hardware and software structure and staff requirements. The study recommended that two additional staff would be required to establish and maintain a GIS in the Authority, composed of one GIS Manager with expertise in the operation of GIS systems, and one GIS project officer as support.
Unfortunately the funding approval did not cover the whole structure and we were left with a technician but no GIS Manager. This was to prove a stumbling block for development in the years to come although progress was still quite evident. In the early stages development was very much focused on map products, where staff were approached regarding possible GIS mapping needs and it was attempted to produce a useable product in a timely manner. Data acquisition was very much a 'grab what you can' exercise where we sought to load our hard disks with as much useful, valid, and 'corrected' data sets as we could find. Fortunately the main base entities (e.g. reefs, islands, coastline, etc.) had been digitised through a contract with AUSLIG so we had a topographic base to work with. These base coverages required quite a lot of editing, however, having been supplied in 11 separate map sheets for each theme and containing a great deal of overlap making edge-matching of the maps impossible.
The focus for the next couple of years was on establishing a database which contained information relevant to planning and management and in correcting errors in the main base layers. Because zoning is primarily the responsibility of the Planning and Environmental Management Section in the Authority, the database development was primarily focused on planning and management needs. Over the 2-3 years of initial development the GIS was confined to a small working group with only two workstations available running ArcInfo and ArcView licences.
This situation continued during the development stages, however, once requests started increasing and as staff started to observe the utility of the system, demand became too high for the group to maintain timely supply of desired products. Also, the number of people in the Authority with GIS needs and skills to use the system was increasing significantly with as many as 8-12 staff wanting to use the system at any one time! The significant bottleneck of ongoing requests made it very difficult to undertake development work and modelling. It was apparent that the system needed to decentralise so that the bottleneck would be relieved and also to provide access for a variety of staff.
Clearly some level of upgrade was required and the tasks allocated to each machine needed to change in order to facilitate throughput of jobs and projects.
Further, there was a perception that the efficiency of the Authority's computing network was being compromised by the volume of data traffic allegedly emanating from GIS sources. While the validity of this suggestion was difficult to quantify, due to ongoing developments within the corporate network itself, the magnitude of existing GIS data transfer across the network was seen to be sufficient to prompt thoughts of partitioning the network to create a GIS sub-network. The sub-network has effectively removed direct GIS network traffic from the mainstream corporate network.
storage of base GIS coverages,
storage of images from satellite and photo-scanning sources, and
provision of GIS user workspace areas and cartographic tools.
memory upgrade for the node-lock server that allows remote access,
new workstations, and
an upgrade to the aging IPX workstation.
the existing floating licence was converted to a node-lock arrangement to allow for remote connections from PCs, Macs and workstations,
a new floating licence for the new workstation was purchased, and
the existing floating licence was relocated to the newly acquired workstation.
It would be worth suggesting, or even insisting, that acquisitions for untried hardware/software platforms be subjected to extensive trials to avoid any contorted workarounds where incompatibility is concerned. In our haste to produce a system with access from various platforms, we accepted assertions of compatibility from end users and vague suggestions from certain vendors. Subsequent operational problems revealed that the desired, fully operational system could not be configured for particular platform/network combinations, such as using Mac ArcView 2.1 to access GIS coverages directly from a Unix server.
An outstanding inventory of data has been acquired, especially when one considers that the original staff structure was never implemented. This has been facilitated by the development of a sound network of contacts and good communication between agencies. It is difficult to maintain regular contacts at times due to work loads and different focus of agencies, however, there appears to be a fairly strong commitment by GIS users to develop coordination and standards.
The outcome of all this work has been a dramatic increase in the use of information to guide decision making. Many projects within the Authority, including the Far Northern Section zoning review, Whitsunday Islands management planning, endangered species planning, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander liaison, the Shoalwater Bay plan, the Effects of Fishing Program, crown-of-thorns starfish research and water quality monitoring have incorporated the use of GIS to perform analysis/modelling and create output maps. As a result quite a few staff have become competent in their ability to enter, edit, manipulate, analyse, and plot information of relevance to the projects for which they are responsible. More importantly, the level of conceptual understanding of GIS and spatial analysis/geography has risen to the level where most GIS users can develop methods for solutions to 'spatial problems'.
The focus for the future of GIS in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority should be on the coordination of data needs, modelling, and reporting systems. Admittedly the coordination of data has been less than ideal due to a variety of circumstances, but mainly being an artefact of the failure to provide the proposed staff structure from the beginning. This situation may be improved if a central data coordination role is developed to oversee data acquisition, analytical needs and modelling. Also, the roles of staff who are administering the GIS in terms of computing support and management of the system need to be clearly defined and staff given adequate credibility. Many organisations have more competent GIS systems due to their commitment to adequate staff structures and by investing in expertise which can guide development and help to avoid wasted effort.
The GIS coordinator role in the computing section has proven to be essential to the daily operation of the GIS system. There are many different components incorporated in the GIS network and it is essential to have somebody to be available to troubleshoot any problems with hardware and/or software. The role of the position has also involved organising any software and hardware quotes and purchases, as well as organising training in GIS for staff. Data management and coordination ARE distinctly separate roles which MUST be given a high priority if a system is to be utilised in an efficient and cost effective manner. At present the position of the GIS 'unit' within the corporate structure needs to be better defined and possibly altered with demarcation made apparent for the separate roles of the team and to further enhance the cohesive nature of the overall information and strategy.
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
PO Box 1379 TOWNSVILLE QLD 4810. Phone: (077) 500 700, Fax: (077) 726 093
E-mail: registry@gbrmpa.gov.au