Automating Online Reef Report Cards – Linking Land Management Practices to Water Quality and Coral Reef Ecosystem Health

Abstract

This paper describes an online information management system (AORRA) that we are developing for the Great Barrier Reef Foundation (GBRF), in collaboration with State and Federal agencies in Australia, to automate the production and online publication of annual Reef Plan Report Cards. The Reef Water Quality Protection Plan is a collaborative program designed to improve the quality of water in the Great Barrier Reef through improved land management practices in reef catchments. The Reef Plan sets ambitious but achievable targets for water quality and land management improvements, and identifies actions to improve the quality of water entering the reef. The success of the plan is measured through Paddock to Reef and Marine Monitoring Programs and annual Reef Plan Report Cards that integrate information and report on land management practices, catchment indicators, water quality loads and the health of the Great Barrier Reef. This paper describes the technical challenges we faced in developing AORRA (Automated Online Reef Reporting Application) – including the integration of heterogeneous monitoring datasets, the derivation of meaningful indicators and the generation of report card products that data about complex spatio-temporal environmental processes to a non-technical audience.