VegMachine.net. Online land cover analysis for the rangelands

Abstract

VegMachine.net is an online land cover monitoring tool unded by the Fitzroy Basin Association (FBA). The tool focuses primarily on Queensland, but has functionality for much of Australia’s rangelands. The website went live in July 2016 and recently logged the 1000th user session. Users can view seven different seasonal time series of cover products across the landscape and interactively interrogate and graph ground cover change in six different on-the-fly and email delivered reports. Results can then be exported for use in other software.
To date, users have generated over 400 VegMachine® FORAGE ground cover reports which provide paddock-by-paddock, landtype-by-landtype analysis of ground cover change from 1990 to the present. Detailed help is available in multiple formats, including website popups and a dedicated YouTube channel. The web application was designed for two main user groups; technically equipped RD&E personnel including those servicing land manager clients, and a subset of the grazier community willing to operate the service themselves. Initial rollout of the application focused primarily on training events for government agency, private consultancy and natural resource management (NRM) staff in regional Queensland. These users form the core of the current user base.
In this paper, we outline the development of VegMachine.net. We demonstrate the primary functionality of the website, provide an overview of user experience including a case study and discuss major learnings and future directions.