Case Study: Groundwater Resource Report Tool Update

The Water and Catchments division of DELWP engaged Spatial Vision to redevelop the reports within the Groundwater Resource Report Tool and the supporting aquifer dataset. The Groundwater Resource Report tool is a customised mapping tool that enables land owners and other groundwater users to locate aquifer information for any aquifer in Victoria.

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The Groundwater Resource Report tool is a complex, public facing tool supporting land owners in identifying suitable bore locations to access groundwater from aquifers legally, approving permits and licensing, and controlling water use with a groundwater resource report output designed in line with Departmental standards.

After designing and developing the original version of this tool, the Water and Catchments division of DELWP reengaged Spatial Vision to redevelop the report and supporting aquifer dataset. A key objective of the project was to move the aquifer data and report to the department’s enterprise MapShare environment to improve the ease of support and maintenance.

Using ArcGIS Enterprise and advanced Geocortex Essentials capabilities, Spatial Vision redeveloped the report which displays key data for the aquifers underlying a selected location in an easily accessible, detailed document. Advanced Geocortex scripting was used create a dynamic and high quality report, while ArcGIS Python geo-processing was used to transform the source aquifer data into a highly efficient reporting structure, enabling sub-second report generation.

Customer Profile

Organisation: VIC DELWP – Water and Catchments

Location: Victoria

Website: https://www.water.vic.gov.au/groundwater/groundwater-resource-reports

Solution

The previous custom-developed report was redeveloped using the Department’s enterprise MapShare environment, based on ArcGIS Enterprise and Geocortex Essentials. Advanced scripting in Geocortex was used to ensure the generated reports met the Department’s requirements for information presentation and corporate styling.

An automated geo-process was developed to process large volumes of aquifer data into a highly efficient GIS dataset that enabled reports to be generated in less than a second rather than minutes.

Benefits

Spatial Vision had to restructure a complex aquifer dataset to support a high quality, fast to access report that would provide potential groundwater users with detailed information about groundwater beneath their property.

The Issue

G roundwater plays an important role in crop irrigation and natural ecosystems. It also helps sustain communities where surface water is unavailable or supply is insecure. However, if groundwater is drawn too swiftly, the aquifers won’t recharge. For this reason, monitoring of groundwater levels is crucial, and a thorough legal process including licensing is undertaken to ensure sustainable extraction.

To further protect this finite resource, DELWP required the redevelopment of their groundwater resource reports to assist land owners in identifying suitable legal bore locations. Spatial Vision had to restructure a complex aquifer dataset to support a high quality, fast to access report that would provide potential groundwater users with detailed information about groundwater beneath their property.

The Solution

The project required Spatial Vision to redevelop an existing tool, re-writing the back-end from custom developed code to instead use DELWP’s enterprise MapShare environment, based on ArcGIS Enterprise and Geocortex essentials.

The first challenge was to develop a data model for the aquifer data which would allow it to be queried very quickly – the source aquifer data comprises many statewide grid datasets. A “publication” spatial data model was designed and a geo-processing task developed to transform the source data into the publication data model. The geo-processing task was packaged and documented and a handover to DELWP staff done so that they could execute and manage the process in the future as the source aquifer data changed.

The groundwater resource report itself was redeveloped using the Geocortex Essentials reporting capability. A simple Geocortex site was created which integrated with the publication aquifer data via an ArcGIS map service. The Geocortex site was for development purposes only – the groundwater resource report is accessed via a simple Vicmap API map on the DELWP web site and this user interface was not changed in this upgrade.

The groundwater resource report is highly dynamic in nature, due to the variable number of aquifers and aquitards that exist at any given location. In order to deliver the required format and design, the Geocortex report was customised using a Geocortex workflow and report scripting.

Spatial Vision then worked with DELWP technical staff to deploy the new report service into the enterprise MapShare environment and the report was integrated with the existing Vicmap API interface via the Geocortex REST interface.

The Benefits

Promotes sustainable groundwater use and management
Provides accurate location, depth and water quality information to land owners
Advanced scripting to produce dynamic report beyond standard capabilities of Geocortex reporting
Built using DELWP’s enterprise MapShare environment for maximum future ease of support and maintenance