GIS crucial push for conservation Barrow

Advances in geographic information systems technology are helping maintain conservation values on Barrow Island, a local GIS services company says.

The Federal Government this week recognised this and other innovative work by the company, Burswood-based National Geographic Information Systems, awarding it a $500,000 R&D Start Grant.

NGIS has been assisting Barrow Island oilfield operator ChevronTexaco identify optimal operational sites, while creating buffer zones around important habitat, director Paul Farrell says.

The company manages a Barrow Island environmental database that has brought together aerial photographs, vegetation maps, animal breeding areas and the position of infrastructure.

Workers laying pipelines in the field use handheld computers showing this information translated as coloured and dynamic maps.

With PIVOT – Pipeline and Infrastructure Value Optimisation Tool - and an attached GPS card, the workers can identify the best routes for the pipes and, as the pipes are laid, enter the positions of the new infrastructure on the ever-changing map.

Any route changes to the optimum model are relayed by email to NGIS.

NGIS has also supported ChevronTexaco with information and mapping for its environmental, social and economic review document, prepared to back the company’s proposal for a Gorgon field gas processing operation on Barrow Island.

Web-based map applications – a definite growth area - are an NGIS specialty, bringing GIS capabilities to whole corporations, Mr Farrell says.

NGIS has been setting up systems for ChevronTexaco, allowing employees to share geographical system information on a dynamic and secure multi-user system.

These are not the only applications of technology and consultancy support offered by NGIS, oil and gas manager John Lang says.

The company has also supplied award-winning North West Shelf environmental atlas services – critical for risk and site analysis - to Apache Energy and BHP Billiton Petroleum.

And for ChevronTexaco, NGIS has prepared two 3D products – a visualisation to show what CO2 injection under Barrow Island will look like, and a 3D fly-through over Barrow, showing a proposed plant and tanker.

"The market is changing," Mr Farrell says.

"People are using the internet and are mobile, so we need to provide up to 10,000 people across and organisation access to the same information.

"Maps were static visual tools.

"Now they provide information used for planning and predicting, and are dynamic."

NGIS has been mindful to take all opportunities offered by industry changes plus those in GIS and remote sensing capabilities, but the company’s growth also presents challenges.

One of the first GIS consultancies in Perth 10 years ago, NGIS has grown 50 per cent in the past year, in terms of staff and clients, Mr Farrell reports.

During the second half of the 90s, the company shifted focus, from selling software and data products, to a consultancy service, building custom-made systems to interface with corporate systems, and providing staff to manage these.

NGIS now has 25 people in Burswood, where it began as a one-man operation, and last month took over more floor space.

A newer and smaller office in Sydney services local and State Government contracts there, one won by tender because of the company’s web-based capabilities, Mr Farrell says.

This project is providing information on the Hunter Valley coalfields to the NSW Mine Subsidence Board.

Using gradient and vegetation data, NGIS has also created an automated firebreak modelling system for the Illawarra region, on behalf of the NSW Bush Fire Brigade.

NGIS has an office in Canberra, and anticipates opening another in Melbourne before the end of the year, after being nominated as a preferred provider for online GIS services to local governments in Victoria.

The company’s major com-petition is now from larger international and multinational organisations, Mr Farrell says.

NGIS has been working on overseas projects over the past 10 years, including one in East Timor, in conjunction with AgWest and AusAID.

The company has worked in most cities in Asia, has people in Cambodia now, and was recently in Ghana and the Philippines.

Like NGIS, Mr Farrell has also received recognition for his innovative work, as an inaugural 40under40 award winner.

The R&D Start Grant will enable NGIS to develop a $1 million spatial decision support project, to provide customised integrated internet mapping packages for industry and government.