Researchers from the Centre for Fish and Fisheries Research at Murdoch University have created a fish-based index of the ecosystem health of the Swan-Canning Estuary, Western Australia. For over 30 years researchers have visited specific sites in the estuary system and caught samples of fish at each location. Using these observations as their base data along with other environmental factors they have built up a model of the health of the ecosystem of the Swan River and Canning River Estuary system. It is proposed that the completed software will be used as an ongoing tool to assist in the monitoring of the Swan/Canning Estuary system. Currently the system is using Excel to store and calculate the indexes. The aim of the project is to develop a software/web-based tool that anyone can use to automate the calculation of the index from new data values collected every year, display findings on maps, allow interrogation of index characteristics using a 'click and display' type of approach and calculate index findings from any of the past 30 years of data that is available. The overall project is very large and in places very complex. At this stage we are breaking the project into manageable parts. Therefore, your team will have three tasks in this part of the project.
- Develop a data model to store the raw data collected in the field
- Create a system to take the raw data and calculate the indexes and store them
- Develop several web pages to display the calculated fish indexes to make them accessible to both the layman and expert alike.