Visualising Victoria’s GroundwateriAwards Winner – Victoria - Society Domain - Regional

Dr Peter Dahlhaus, Dr Helen Thompson and Mr Andrew Macleod6 August 2013

www.vvg.org.au

VALUE

Groundwater sustains communities, food production, rivers and wetland ecologies. More then 500 billion litres of groundwater is used every year in Victoria and the demand is growing, driven by drier climates and increasing population

Groundwater is a hidden resource

A collaboration of 17 partner organisations

An interoperative spatial information portal that federates groundwater data from disparate sources to assist water managers make the correct choices for the sustainable use of a precious resource

UNIQUENESS

Open standardsOpen source

Interoperability

Data remains with the custodiansFirst in Australia

Access to legacy data

Designed for NBNCrowd-sourcing dataGlobally transferrable technologies

Intuitive to use Allows data downloads

Links spatial data to primary source

Free access

Publically available3D data visualisation

Improves productivity

Strong collaboration

Make an invisible resource visible

Easy access to open data

Reduces red tape

Created new initiatives in NRM and beyond

Dynamic modelling

Links widely varied data from widely varied sources

“Changing the paradigm in government data delivery”

Not a government portal

Decision support for a precious resource

System architectureFUNCTION

Bores from 4 different databases + springs

Predictions of depth to watertable, groundwater quality, surface elevation and basement elevation

e.g. ground-water salinity

Predictions of aquifer top, bottom and thickness

e.g. surface elevation +

basalt thickness

Links to bore data

Bore location & construction

Aquifer parameters

Waterlevel monitoring

Groundwater chemistry

Bore lithology

Links to: Photos Documents Maps & sections

Stratigraphy

Waterlevel monitoring

Groundwater chemistry

CeCC Success 2/5/12

Access to rare spatial data(e.g. Ballarat Water Board maps from 1870)

3D visualisation of Victoria’s groundwater systems on demand

Combining technologies with QUT – dynamic 3D visualisations in a browser

Mobile version

Data on the nearest bores

Sink a virtual borehole

Interrogate the groundwater systems under foot

The VVG is the tool of choice used every day to manage groundwater use and maintain environmental flows, plan the clean-up of contaminated sites, investigate the potential for water supplies, research groundwater system function, educate the community…

VALUE

Farmers, water authorities, researchers, consultants, drillers, government departments, educators, community groups, students, catchment managers…

Further information

Dr Helen ThompsonDirectorCentre for eCommerce and CommunicationsOffice of Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research)University of Ballarat

Email h.thompson@ballarat.edu.auWeb www.vvg.org.au and www.ubspatial.com.au