South Coast Region
NRM Data – CatchPlan
The Catchment Land Use Change Information Database (CatchPlan) System has been developed as a planning tool for strategic catchment groups to record baseline and ongoing changes to participating properties within the catchment. Catchplan is a dynamic system which is modified to meet the changing needs of the user base.
CatchPlan is an application written in Microsoft Access that has been adopted as an on-ground works management tool by several of the South Coast NRM catchment groups. CatchPlan written by John Bloor, was developed to accommodate data collected from survey work carried out in the Lake Warden Recovery Catchment by staff from the Dept of Agriculture and Food in 2006. That group was using Microsoft Access to record the survey responses and the Intergraph GeoMedia GIS application to map existing and proposed works in the catchment.
By default, GeoMedia uses Microsoft Access as its default database management system for storing spatial information (points, lines and areas). The information about each theme (feature class) is stored in a warehouse (Access database) as a table. This offered an opportunity to add additional Microsoft Access tables, forms, queries and reports to the warehouse to build a system to record, store and recall information to assist the catchment groups to manage their projects.
CatchPlan is a property based tool, which in its current form utilises several themes of information that are currently funded through South Coast NRM project agreements; namely:
- Perennials;
- Engineering works (drainage);
- Farm forestry;
- Native revegetation;
- Fencing;
- Water sources and storage; and
- Soil amelioration.
Additionally, general property information can also be recorded to assist catchment group staff to work with the landholders to manage the on ground works in their region.
CatchPlan is a property based system which records on ground works overtime. In the initial set up phase, property information is imported from the DAFWA Client Resource Information System (CRIS). The PropertyID forms the link between the properties and themes.
During normal operation, spatial information pertaining to each theme is digitised in the associated GIS application (GeoMedia or ArcGIS) and common attributes such as PropertyID, LotNumber, Status, Implementation Month, Implementation Year and VisitID are recorded along with theme specific information as part of the process. The VisitID ties all of the proposed on-ground works on a property at a specific time together, so that the information can be viewed in CatchPlan and changes over time recognised and reported on more easily. Should the need arise to modify information; changes can be made easily made to the attributes without having to use the GIS application.
One of the benefits of CatchPlan is that it provides summary information of both existing and proposed works undertaken in the catchment. This information is recalculated whenever the Switchboard (opening form) is displayed and therefore reflects the most recent changes made on either the GIS or Catchplan side. This means that the time needed to complete scheduled reports is much reduced. An example of the Summary of Proposed Works appears below.
Another benefit is that CatchPlan can automatically generate incentive agreement forms that can be sent to participating landholders. It maintains records of agreements forwarded and returned and amounts agreed and accepted during each funding round.
A typical agreement form is shown below:
