Supervising Scientist Division

Proceedings of the GIS and Environmental Rehabilitation Workshop

Devonport C, Riley SJ & Ringrose SM (eds) 1992
Darwin 4-5 September 1992, Supervising Scientist for the Alligator Rivers Region, AGPS, Canberra

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Contents

Foreword

The rehabilitation of environments affected by human activities (e.g. mining, military, pastoral) as well as natural occurrences (e.g. cyclones, floods, earthquakes) is growing in importance. Planning, implementing and monitoring of rehabilitation are complex processes which, as higher standards are demanded, require increasingly sophisticated means to accomplish acceptable results. Information technology already plays a major role in these processes in organisations involved in rehabilitation. Increasing use of spatial data alongside existing attribute information, together with continuing advances in hardware and software, is leading to increased reliance on computerised systems by decision makers who have to consider spatial information.

The Office of the Supervising Scientist (OSS) is developing , in conjunction with the Northern Territory University (NM, a geographic information system (GIS) which will assist in planning rehabilitation and assessing the environmental impact of uranium mines in the Alligator Rivers Region. It is recognised that the facility will also have much wider application. Part of the agreed strategy for the development of the OSS/NTU GIS Laboratory was the organisation of a workshop in the first year and these proceedings are the outcome.

The aim of the workshop was to provide a forum for the exchange of information on the current status of the use of geographic information systems for different aspects of rehabilitation in Northern Australia. The 20 papers presented here reflect the wide diversity of people interested in this area with academic, government, commercial, and military interests represented. As many people expressed interest in the workshop it was not practical to keep within the original aim of a small group. However, the benefit of greater numbers was evident in the wide ranging and valuable discussions and meetings during and after the workshop between the 40 participants.

The contents of these papers am as submitted by their authors.

We would like to acknowledge Associate Professor Charles Webb, Dean of Science at NTU, for his welcoming address at the workshop. Thanks are also due to Janet Hoskings and Cheryl Huckerby for assisting in the running of the workshop and the Northern Territory Museum of Arts and Sciences for providing the venue. Steven James from Intergraph was unable to provide a paper for inclusion in these proceedings but his contribution, together with a demonstration of Intergraph hardware and software, was most useful. We are also grateful to the Military Geographic Information group in Darwin who went to considerable effort to bring their RS/6000 hardware and Geovision software to demonstrate at the workshop.