Information Management

Biodiversity is a natural capital asset with immense economic significance for Western Australia. A great deal of information on the state’s biodiversity and the supporting physiochemical environment has been collected and interpreted by research agencies and industry. However, the existing knowledge base is fragmented and difficult to access. All stakeholders agree that an enhanced information base that can be readily accessed and easily interpreted will improve decision making.

WAMSI is working with industry, regulators, researchers and the community to build a data sharing and access culture that enables us to better understand the cumulative environmental impacts of an action, on a region, over time.

Program objectives

1. Create and lead a culture of shared expertise, common data standards, policies and incentives for data sharing and support a system for persistent storage and archiving of data.
2. Mobilise biodiversity data from all available sources (Environmental Impact Assessment, government agencies, Natural Resource Management groups, the research community, community groups etc.) to make the data promptly and routinely available to the entire biodiversity community.
3. Curate and manage surveys into data layers that give individual surveys context and meaning, enabling this data to be used as evidence.
4. Deliver (or enable) informed, trusted analytical and assurance outcomes using shared solutions and technologies.
5. Support optimised policy and decision making, transparent, efficient assessment and assurance processes as well as informed environmental adaptive management frameworks to provide investment confidence and an informed community.