In 2007, the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) in Victoria, Australia engaged Geomatic Technologies, a Microsoft partner and specialist in location-based business intelligence, to develop a Groundwater Management Unit Inventory.

The new Microsoft Virtual Earth-based groundwater management tool is designed to overcome a simple but daunting problem: mapping out areas of intensive groundwater use, determining management actions for stressed aquifers, and making that information quickly and widely available.

Groundwater: A Limited Resource in High Demand

Like much of Australia, Victoria has struggled with a long drought that has affected even Australia's wettest corner. "We've had 12 years of drought here," says Jill McNamara, a senior policy officer for Victoria's DSE. "That puts a lot of pressure on groundwater as surface water becomes less available." In Victoria, groundwater is largely trapped in deep subsurface basins of gravel, sand, and limestone, some more than 500 meters thick, that have accumulated over the past 50 million years.

But that store of water is hardly infinite-particularly with little rainwater to recharge those stores. One in 10 residents in Victoria—one of Australia's most urbanized states, with a population of about 5.25 million—now relies on groundwater for everyday use. Moreover, Victoria's agricultural and livestock industry, which generates around AUD $9 billion each year, relies heavily on groundwater.

Managing groundwater effectively is a key concern for Victoria's government. In particular, fears of a falling water table have led the Victoria government to monitor water use and licenses to extract water. "We needed a higher level of management for our groundwater supplies," says McNamara.

A Need for Real-Time Data

Victoria covers 91,749 square miles of varied territory that includes open range, mountains, and the densely populated city of Melbourne.

Previously, DSE compiled paper and computer-based records of groundwater usage from 70 local water districts, groundwater management areas (defined by particular aquifers or high levels of groundwater use), and other sources. The DSE collected the records in its central office in Melbourne and then published the information on CDs for distribution throughout the state.

"There wasn't any real-time record of total groundwater use, because by the time we got through putting things together, the information probably was three months old," says McNamara. Water managers in Victoria wanted a solution to get real-time access to data that was locked up in scattered databases and spatial systems, and combine that data in an easy-to-use and widely accessible format.

Microsoft Virtual Earth Contributes to Comprehensive Groundwater Management

To store information supplied by the DSE, Geomatic Technologies developed a relational database and the Groundwater Management Unit Inventory, a water inventory tool based on Virtual Earth. The objective: to give key stakeholders, such as rural water authorities, farmers, livestock ranches, domestic and stock users and DSE water managers an easy-to-use picture of groundwater resources for effective resource management.

The new system, now being released, includes information about:

• Groundwater volumes, license holders, and permissible volumes used by agricultural and municipal users.
• Areas where new licenses are limited due to fears of overuse.
• Complete maps of groundwater units, records from bore holes the DSE uses to monitor groundwater levels, aquifer perimeters, and more.

McNamara says this information is easily shared between stakeholders and rural water authorities such as the Goulburn Murray water district, Grampians Wimmera Mallee water district, and Southern Rural water district.

"We'll have real-time links to hydrographs that show us water level trends for all management areas, as well as updated management responses to react to falling water level trends," says McNamara. "It's easier to use and makes a lot more sense."

Fast and Cost-Effective Solution Development

Virtual Earth combines state-of-the art imagery and mapping tools with fast, browser-based access to information and enterprise-grade security and support. Ross Caldow, Business Development Manager at Geomatic Technologies says Virtual Earth helped make development of the new groundwater management tool fast, and gives end users a choice of how they want to see data.

"In the past, such mapping solutions would have taken twice as long to develop as they would have required data loading, map authoring, software development and performance tuning," he says. "With Virtual Earth, the development team could focus on satisfying the requirements of the customer rather than building a suitable mapping system."

Virtual Earth was a clear choice to use in the development of the groundwater management tool because of its relatively low cost. "Traditionally, GIS (geospatial information systems) mapping engines and government data sets would not have integrated into the Web environments and databases as easily as Virtual Earth," says Caldow.

"Knowing that the mapping environment was being supplied by Virtual Earth meant that application support could be reduced, resulting in lower support and hosting costs for the customer."

Caldow says Virtual Earth lends itself to numerous applications where environmental stakeholders need a clear view of important data. Because the Virtual Earth mapping data is stored separately from a user's data, a user such as the Victoria DSE can focus on ensuring its data is current, rather than working to integrate it into the Virtual Earth platform. And Virtual Earth's ability to integrate with a wide variety of data sources means an organization can unlock existing data stores.

A Clear View of Resources

The Groundwater Management Inventory tool provides a clear and detailed picture of its groundwater resources and users that can be easily accessed from any Web browser.

Members of the public will, for the first time, have access to an easy-to-use Web site where they can learn about water availability in their area, special restrictions on water use, and more.

The Virtual Earth image base offers clear and detailed images of all of Victoria, from Melbourne to the Australian Alps, to the dry northwest corner of the state. "The mapping controls in Virtual Earth are ideally suited to the needs of users," says Caldow. "It has high-performance panning and zooming within the map."

With better access to records about water usage, licenses, and water availability, says McNamara, the DSE can make better decisions about water usage, allocate licenses fairly, and ensure that licenses to pump water don't cause a particular aquifer to fall below levels that can be adequately replenished during the current drought.

For the Victoria DSE, Virtual Earth has helped to create a clear view of one of its most valuable resources.