Launch WISE v5 beta

The WISE (Water Information System for the Environment) product provides access to the most up to date water related information for an entire catchment. It gives an overview of the catchment, its rivers, wetlands, fauna and flora, National Parks and towns by creative display of text, maps, videos, photographs and an animation of river flows. It also highlights key issues and provides primary source information for the catchment on these issues. With powerful search routines, people find how water information varies across the catchment and for each wetland, river or creek in the catchment. Publications can be collected and abstracts read to determine if the publication is relevant to their interests. For the first time, the WISE software allows the best available information for a catchment to be easily located and applied to relevant natural resource problems.

Advantages of the WISE databases include:

• Provides a solution for information management at a catchment scale assisting with capacity building.
• Improve the management and dissemination of existing information on water and the environment
• Provides all the up to date published information on water quality for entire catchments so that all people may access it
• Provides necessary information for Catchment Action Plans, setting of targets and investment strategies
• Increased community awareness of biodiversity, river and wetland management
• Instil community ownership of the project through recognition of local issues and areas
• Strengthen community partnerships and involvement in aquatic biodiversity conservation
• Provide educational, textural and multimedia material suitable for use with primary and secondary schools
• Recognise and promote the cultural importance of aquatic resources to indigenous users and ensure ecologically sustainable use
• Provide an extensive bibliography to be used for all future research programs and make scientific literature more available
• Identify areas where there is a lack of information to channel limited resources where they are most needed

What's new in version 5 beta?

• Abstracts have been brought into the database, and are now searchable via the 'global search' in the top right-hand corner.
• Code has been extensively refactored. Many classes have been converted into Components.
• Map coverage at 1:250,000 scale has been extended across Central and South-Eastern Australia, and covers the Lake Eyre Basin, Murray-Darling Basin, South-East Coast Basin, and the South Australian Gulf Basin, including both Landsat and Topographic maps.
• MapViewer has several new features, including a Dragging tool, Lat/Long tool, and the ability to blend Topographic and Landsat imagery.
• Several new features are still in development, including a tool for measuring distances between two places on a map, and a references export module for importing into Endnote.