About the datasets

At present, four primary datasets are available in the Corangamite region web-GIS. These are:

• Groundwater bore data
• Mapped land salinity
• Mapped landslides
• Mapped soil erosion

Each data point, line or polygon on the map is linked to a record in the relevant database which is maintained on a daily basis by the data manager. At present, the bore database is the most complex, and may contain over a hundred fields of data for each bore. By comparison, the salinity database currently contains only eleven fields of data for each record.

The emphasis in the data collection has been to refer each record to its original source and link to the original source material where available.

It is proposed to add more datasets in the future, most of which relate to geology, geomorphology, soils and geohazards.

Groundwater Bore Data

The Corangamite Groundwater Bore Monitoring and Research Database was first constructed in 2003 (Dahlhaus et al. 2003). The database combined the bores located in the Corangamite region from the Victorian Groundwater Management System (GMS); the Geological Exploration and Development Information System (GEDIS); and the Victorian Salinity Bore Database - each separately managed by a state government agency. Since then, dozens of additional bores have been added and data of the existing bores enhanced from various University research and student projects, published and unpublished research projects, unpublished consulting reports, farm records, and municipal records.

The quality of the bore data varies greatly. Bore records may be duplicated, the locations may be wrong, data may be missing and sometimes data may be wrong. For this reason, the emphasis in the data collection has been to refer each record to its original source and link to the original source material where available. Over time it is proposed to edit each individual bore in the database to verify and clean the data where possible. As a general rule, the more recent bores drilled by the University and their collaborative research partners have the most complete and accurate data. 

Mapped Salinity Data

The mapped salinity has been amalgamated from a series of sources, the main two being the Department of Primary Industries GIS salinity layer and the Department of Sustainability and Environment wetland layer. Only the wetlands classified as semi-permanent saline or permanent saline (according to the Corrick Wetland classification) have been included. Additional data has been sourced from student projects and miscellaneous University research and consulting work. Each polygon has been tagged with the original source of the data.

Mapped Landslides

The landslide database has grown over a number of years from a variety of sources, the dominant ones of which are the work by the Geological Survey of Victoria and the University of Ballarat (refer to Dahlhaus 2003). Additional data has been subsequently added (mostly in work undertaken by A S Miner Geotechnical) from various published and unpublished reports, geotechnical investigations for planning applications, municipal strategic planning investigations, University research, graduate and post graduate student theses, field investigations, and miscellaneous sources.

The fields of data attached to each record were limited, so a much more extensive landslide database has been developed.  See  www.ubspatial.com.au

Mapped soil erosion

The soil erosion database was constructed as part of a Bachelor of Applied Science (Honours) research project in 2005 (Feltham 2005). The main method of data capture was using aerial orthophotography and GIS, with field reconnaissance surveys to ground-truth the data. The erosion database is being updated by capturing the information currently held by the Department of Primary Industries.

At present the fields in the database are limited. It is intended to construct a more comprehensive database if project funding can be secured.