Evolving VegMachine.net: enhancing a successful tool for Australian rangeland cover analysis

Abstract

VegMachine.net is a free online platform for analysing long-term vegetation trends across Australian landscapes. Since its launch in 2016, the platform has been used for thousands of site-specific cover analyses, been a feature of numerous NRM and extension projects, and contributed to more than 30 peer reviewed studies. While VegMachine® has proven valuable to land managers, scientists, and environmental organizations, user feedback has highlighted potential improvements around more reliable data access, better mobile access and improved interface stability of the platform. A recent upgrade to VegMachine has addressed these user requests by prioritising mobile accessibility and user experience. This upgrade includes a responsive mobile-first design, new tools for efficient data collection of user features, and data persistence for seamless use across sessions and when offline. Additionally, the backend infrastructure has been overhauled, resulting in improved data stability and robust access through a revamped Application Programming Interface (API) and improved data storage. This paper discusses the improvements to the interface, backend API and improved data storage in detail. These changes will significantly improve the VegMachine user experience and make the application more accessible to a broader user base across Australia.