Held on 16th September 2021, by DELWP ICM Team, via Microsoft Teams Video Conference.
Adam G Hood (DELWP)
I'm the senior manager of integrated catchment management in the department of Environment, land, water and planning.
Most of you should know why we here today, but I just sent to say straight up right at the start here, but the.
We're recording this meeting.
Come in cases that we know where people who are unable to attend today, we'll be able to watch this important technical.
Uh meeting, uh back again to help explain how this geodatabase going to work. I should say this is the.
Second seminar, and I'll explain that in a second of two which is about DELWP standard output data output.
Importantly, that's to say that. so I'll first start off by welcoming everyone and recognizing and acknowledging the traditional owners on the lands on which we meet. and their elders past, present and emerging and any of them that might be here today.
So just to follow up on that This is the second of two workshops. The first workshop was a well, a seminar. I should say this seminar where we presented the delta output out of standard as an overview of what we've changed. His people should understand this is a we've now moved from version two to version three. After a significant review which has been led by Chris Jackson who's with us there today and.
Uh, that overview was provided to give us a if you like helicopter into what happened and is it a key part of the pro program of work and to support people's and organizational uptake of the standard.
Uh, we've engaged spatial vision, and in particular, Ian Miller, who's been leading that from them, their organization to update and create a new geodatabase, which is what the essence of today's presentations about the intent there is to try and support people's capacity and capability in in making sure this work gets embedded into your organization and the.
You'll see today that there's been significant steps forward in really making this new geodatabase.
Skiing, I think for a lot of a lot of interests, and it the not only that the Technical Support, the sorry, the take your technical documentation that comes with this as a result of this work will provide those of you who are going to create your own versions of this in your own systems, pending on where you are with a lot of detailed information about how to and what's there. So just say really, quickly we'll talk about it. The end of this presentation, but.
The intent is that we have this presentation today.
That we will have Q&A session at the end of this presentation, and that all the relevant materials will be circulated to everyone in this meeting at the end of the meeting will also be putting well explained a bit about at the end as well, but will also be putting the information onto a Central DELWP website, which will have the output data standard and the relevant technical information that we're talking through today.
And as we've been discussing with some of you already, we're building a bevy of frequently asked questions, and the answers to those and will also provide those out to this group on a regular basis as we build and add to them, but will also update those on the website.
Uhm, I suppose considering the size of the group, I'm happy for you to answer any kind of preliminary questions. This is just a check to make sure that everyone in the right room and is there any preliminary, not technical ones because we've got just about to go into that? Are there any preliminary questions that people would like to ask at this stage?
OK, well what I'll do. It doesn't really make a lot of difference when we're sharing screens, but I will ask people to do a couple of things in particularly this one is important. I think is that they have their microphones off during the presentation. It does help a lot with just the smoothness of this. There'll be checking times throughout the presentation, so Ian is going to run the presentation largely and Chris and I'll come in a bit later. But and we might help him a bit with question and answers through those brakes, but.
Keep your marks off if you've got a question then you, while we're going along and throw it into the chat along the side and Chris and I can kind of dive in during the breaks and kind of. And I suppose either field those questions or send them on to Ian for checking.
Uh, yeah, and it does help with Marks and cameras off during the presentation. It's just easier to focus on the presentation itself.
On that and I might hand over to you to start. That is that OK?
Ian Miller (Guest)
Yep, that's good.
Adam G Hood (DELWP)
Thanks.
Ian Miller (Guest)
But thank you, Adam. Just a couple of things before I start. The first is going to be juggling many screens, so apologies in advance for my clumsiness in in getting things into your view.
And secondly, when I'm sharing my screen's because of the different screens I'm sharing, I can't have a view of the people list and the hands up, etc. So Chris and Adam. Feel free to interrupt me verbally if there's something that needs to be brought to my attention or a question that we want to answer. As Adam said, though, will have regular check ins, the content is reasonably information dense, so we'll take relatively small bites and then we'll make sure we stop and give people a chance to reflect and. And ask any questions and then a more general Q&A session at the end is Adam said.
So let me move into sharing. OK, So hopefully you're seeing.
The presentation someone just acknowledged that's what you're saying.
Chris Jackson (DELWP)
Yes, that's all explain.
Ian Miller (Guest)
OK, thank you all, right. So let's move through.
So today we're going to focus on a few things you've seen. The agenda I want to start off with a
Uhm, for those that perhaps haven't used it before.
And then I'll move into looking more specifically at the sorts of things that have changed from the previous version of the geodatabase that was released in 2015. With the I guess the earlier version of the standard.
And then at the end, we'll look at some more technical things, such as what if you're not using Esri? And I also want to do a quick review of the documentation you're going to receive just so that you're across it.
Uhm, this won't be death by PowerPoint. I've got a small number of PowerPoint slides as the anchor of the presentation, but I will be moving into demonstrating in various GIS software etc. As we go through.
So the first thing I want to cover is really just to I guess, to answer the question, what is a geodatabase if you haven't used it before? And what are the key components that it comprises and you'll see on this slide.
This left hand images view of what the database looks like. In fact one and I just go straight into.
OK knockout catalog if I can find it. So if you're an Android user you may be familiar with this view if you're not.
You'll be familiar with it in other GIS software and so here we have the geodatabase here. This is a file geodatabase and I'll talk some more about enterprise Geodatabases later.
And you'll see that it has a structure a little bit like a file system structure, and it comprises a number of different elements.
There it comprises a number of these folders. If you like, these are called feature datasets, their grouping mechanisms to bring together layers of of relevance, and in particular if you've been having a look at the standard, the new version of the standard document that Chris and Adam presented in in the last seminar, these are set up to match largely the chapters in that document, and so if we open those up, you'll see that each comprises a number of different feature classes as they're known.
And again, you'll see that each of these matches and output from the from the standard.
the names are pretty much the same as they are in the standards document. There's a little bit of abbreviation and you don't see spaces etc, but it should be pretty straightforward for you to correlate the two, and you'll also notice this little icon here, and there's really shows you the geometry type of each of those feature classes. So earthworks is points and over abundant. Wildlife is polygons, and so on. So there's sort of the primary components.
Of the of the geodatabase.
Uh, in in practice all of this is sitting in a folder of files on the disk with a dot GD B extension, and that's what you'll be provided as part of the package that dealt. Will send out to you after this presentation.
You'll also notice a few other things, so we've talked about feature datasets and feature classes you'll see down here a series of additional entries that have a little table like on these are feature tables, and these are a new thing in this version of the geodatabase, so they weren't in the previous version. If you were using that and will come to those in a little bit more detail in a moment as we work through some of the differences between what's being provided at this time and what was provided last time.
The next thing I want to say briefly and I'll just go and look at the properties of one of these feature datasets is that if you look at the exploit coordinate system, you'll see that the coordinate system that we're delivering this in is GDA 2020 Vic Grid and that's also a difference to the previous version of the Geodatabase where it was delivered. In GTA 94, Vick Grid 2020 is reasonably well adopted.
Not all organizations have moved into 2020 yet, but it certainly is the current standard, and it's been reasonably well adopted, and so this geodatabases being delivered in 2020.
And that doesn't necessarily prohibit you from collecting data in 94 victory if that's what you're currently doing, and you're not quite at the point of being able to change and so you could come into this feature, this geodatabase and modify your coordinate system to GDA 94, but for submission to dealt the strong preference is that you do submit it. In GTA 2020 victory.
The next thing I I'll go through and I promise I won't go through this in any level of detail, is if I look at the properties of a single feature class.
You'll see here on the fields tab, the detail of all of the fields that are in the feature class.
And by and large, these match what is documented in the standard itself. Of course, in the standard there are two sections that document the fields or attributes. There's a common attribute section up front, which are those that are common across all of the feature classes or outputs, and then within the individual chapters and outputs there are the specific attributes for a different feature class. I said this doesn't match up perfectly, and that's because.
In an injury world, it requires a number of additional attributes, sort of dissent, standard attributes that it requires you to have, and so again, those of you that are familiar with surgery will recognize object ID and globalized E R2 of the standard. Every attributes that must be in feature classes and so they're not part of the standard. They're simply technically required as part of the.
The other geodatabase and the shape of feature classes, the representation of the geometry which is described in the standard, but not necessarily named shape.
Clearly, if you take this. This standard or geodatabase and implemented in a different GIS package and I'll talk briefly about that later in the presentation. Those three fields.
May not exist or may have different names depending on your particular software.
So these this represents the different attributes of. In this case the channel output and you can see here the type of data that's defined there, and if you click on one of them.
And you can see a little bit more information down the bottom here, and in particular importance is this domain field.
So the concept of a domain is sometimes called a reference table or list. Certain fields or attributes in the standard have a controlled vocabulary as it's called a certain set of values that you are allowed to use.
And in every there called domains and so you'll see some fields like this have a domain associated and this gives you the name of the domain. I'll talk more about that later.
And it also gives you the default value, and that's the code default, not the descriptive default. And again, I'll talk more about that in a moment.
You see, other fields don't have domains, so if I click on output ID for example, you see it doesn't have a domain value entered there and that means it's a data entry field where you can enter you know text Aurora number. Depending on the particular type, and so you can go through there and you can see all the various fields for all the feature classes.
And the last aspect of the geodatabase that I'll briefly present is talking about the domains that we saw a moment ago.
So if I go to the geodatabase itself, this dot, GD B and right mouse on it and choose properties I come up with the overall database properties and one of the tabs there you'll see here is the list of domains and so in this top box here you can see all of the various lists or domains that are required across all of the different feature classes and all of the different feature tables there. There are quite a few there are, there are dozens and dozens of them, and if you select.
Particular one we run channels before, so I'm going to say like that domain that was referenced there.
Uhm, and what you'll see down the bottom in the coded values are the entries that are allowed for that field, and for each of them you'll see they have a descriptive value and a code of values. The code is what's stored in the database table, but the description is what you see in the user interface. If you're using Arcgis. But if you look at these tables or database level, you'll see these code values.
And if you have good memory, you remember that the default value we saw for that field was 1896, which is this incomplete value here. And so there are all of the different coded values for all of the domains that you can browse through.
Now coming in and look at this interactively is one way you can do it, but we've provided you with some pretty comprehensive documentation and all of these as well. And we'll cover those off.
I'm at a later time.
So this is a bit of a technical look at the underlying data, but let me move into Arcmap now and look at this more from an end user perspective. And how would you interact with this geodatabase in a GIS editing or query type session? So again, if you're familiar with our Arcgis, you'll be familiar with Arcmap, maybe you're using Arcgis Pro, which is the newer version, or I'll demonstrate in Arcmap for the moment.
And you'll see here I've got open that same geodatabase with the same structure. Some of the fields expanded.
And so if I want to view or edit them, I need to add them into my layer list over here on the left hand side and you can see I've done a little bit of work preparing some of these earlier.
And so you can just drag and drop them across, or you can click and say add to map and so let's look at an example of how this looks. So if I look at my channel list here.
Alright, let me go back there.
This is the channel feature class and if I was going to edit this now I'm I would go and start editing. Whoops, I'm already started it as he I've left the session open and so now I would come up here and look to create a new feature.
I'm so in Esri when you create a new feature, it gives you some templates for creating that feature and for channel line is what I want to edit and so I select line to do construction and then I can simply draw a channel here. This won't make much sense. I'm not entering a proper value but let me
And for some reason I'm going to create my channel in a very zigzag fashion and so now I've created my first channel and if I Click to open its attributes then you will see here the same list of attributes that we were looking at when we looked at the properties at the channel list.
Uhm, and again, you say that a number of them are pre populated with his incomplete value.
These are the fields that have domains and the way this geodatabases being delivered is that for all all domain based fields.
They have a default which says incomplete.
This is not a value, it's intended you would ever deliver to DELWP. It is a value to represent the fact that you have yet to make an appropriate choice for that field in your data that you're creating.
And if I click on one of those, you'll see that it drops down and shows the values in that domain, and so you would as an additive come through here and start choosing the values that you want.
And we're delivering under version three. It's a channel. The specific type is that this is a drain or a channel and so on and so on. Now some that use you can type in as I said and some values you'll just enter.
I'm texting two or select domains and so you'd move through and complete the remainder of the fields in that way, and so that's a sort of A and an editor view if you like.
Uhm, there is one mandatory field and that is output ID. I'm going to talk about this later on, but you cannot save a record without a valid output ID and the standard in the common attributes section gives some explanation about the reason that decisions been made and also describes the format of that field and we will come back and talk about that a little bit later.
So that's a quick look of how you can.
Uh, use the geodatabase to create and edit data and will come back here and look a little bit later at some of the other areas.
Alright, I'll take a breather there. We've been through a little bit I'm just going to give people a chance to reflect and see if we've got any questions to deal with before we move on.
Nope, don't sound like we have.
Chris Jackson (DELWP)
No, nothing in the chat so far.
Ian Miller (Guest)
OK, well I've either been extremely clear or you're all sitting there stunned. Let's assume the former and move on.
So the next section I want to work through is starting to look at some of the changes. So for those of you that have been previous users of the geodatabase.
Yes.
Uhm, a key question in your head is going to be well, what's changed? You know if I got existing systems or existing processes, or I've got staff that are trained in the current use, what are the things that are going to be different that we need to adapt to either in our systems or our processes or our training? And so I want to move through those.
The first one is, I said is the output ID. This field is mandatory. In other words, you must put a value in that field before you can create a particular output value or or entry, and it must uniquely denote a single output.
And so the only example or the only time that you would have two different records.
In different feature classes or tables that had the same output ID is if they were referring to the same actual output and you needed to describe it in two places and have them linked together properly.
You would never have the same output ID within a single feature class more than once, so it must be truly unique within a single feature class.
And as I say, you would only be replicated across feature classes or tables in some very specific circumstances that will come onto in a moment.
The second point to be made about the output ID is that it now has a very formatted structure requirement. Previously this fields being here and people have populated or not populated it, and different organisations have populated it in in in a manner of their choosing, often driven out of other systems so that they form links into your project management system or whatever other systems you relate to stand it outputs.
But now there's a standard format, and it's the format is showing here, and it's described in in the standards document itself. In the common attributes section, and you'll see that it comprises three components there that I've color coded just for ease of you.
The first component is an abbreviation for your organization, so in this case these Gippsland CMA. It could be PV. If you're parks Vic.
And it would be asked me if our organization was submitting stuff. I think the standard suggests it's somewhere between two and five characters, but it must be unique and you must stay with that abbreviation consistently for your organization.
And the reason for requiring it is that as DELWP starts to bring together data submitted by various organisations.
Clearly, this second one, the second part, which is the number, will be replicated between organisations. There's no way of ensuring that only one organization has number one, and one organization has #2, and so the during the organizational prefix is intended to make those two components together unique.
So the second component is simply a sequential number that you are free to allocate using whatever approach you want.
Uh, I think 6 digits is what's being mentioned.
Uh, and you know you may create those explicitly for filling this out, or they may be generated in external systems and so on.
And then the third component, which has a dash separating the number and the financial year date.
Denotes the financial year in which this output is being delivered.
And this is it's discussed in the previous seminar. I think Chris covered in some detail.
It's been adding to avoid the situation where a particular output maybe progressively delivered over a number of years. You know you might have funded some works, and they might have done some in in, you know 2020, 21 and they might do a bit more in 2122, and so you may be reporting it each year to DELWP, and this is to really clarify that what you are reporting in this database or this submission refers to. The works that have been completed in this financial year and so dealt will be able to use that to aggregate it.
First of all, to ensure that they're not double counting things that might be reported in multiple years and, and secondly to enable them to link year on year. The total sum, I guess of what has been achieved under a particular output.
Now, the purpose. As I said there is, is to link together things, feature classes to tables and fence lines defence polygons and we'll come on to that now.
So the next change has been the. There are now some limited circumstances in which multiple geometry types are being supported.
There are two examples in this version of the GEODATABASE.
Yes, it's possible that in future versions of the standard there may be further examples where an output requires or can be provided in different geometry's. I think for this version of the standard there was a view of implementing a couple of highest priority ones and seeing how that goes. The two examples that have been implemented in this version.
Alpha fence and management agreement. And they're a bit different. For fence.
Uhm, there are two feature classes, fence line and fence. Polygon Fence line is considered the main fence feature class and it has all of the standard attributes that are described in the in the output standard.
Fence Polygon is a supplement to fence line. It does not include all of the attributes, so you report your fence output primarily in the fence line class.
And you must provide a fence line class.
For every output of fence type.
Fence Polygon should be provided in cases where the effect of the fence line output is to add an area protected.
And so the fence line describes the fence work itself, construction repair, whatever. It is, the line of defense that was created or repaired, and the Polygon denotes the area that has been protected. You know, excluded, included, whatever the protection type that you're achieving with that output is and so you must provide fence line. You should provide fence Polygon in any case where it's appropriate and if you look at the fence Polygon feature class.
And I might just do that to make this a little bit less theoretical.
So if we look at the fence line feature class here.
You see there it has the full set of.
Uhm, attributes. If I open the fence Polygon feature class.
You see that apart from the standard Esri ones, it only has a single attribute which is output ID.
And so that is the linking key. So you create your fence line feature class, you assign it an appropriate output ID as we just discussed.
Then where required, you come in and create a matching fence Polygon feature.
And you put the same output ID into that so that it can be uniquely linked to your fence line view.
The second example is management agreements.
And this is different because there are two feature classes provided, management, agreement points and management agreement Polygon. But the in this case these are alternatives. The intention is that for each management agreement that you are reporting, you would decide the most appropriate spatial representation of the location or extent of that management agreement point or Polygon. Typically Polygon might be used to represent a physical area.
On, on a property that is covered by that management agreement. Whereas point might represent you know regional office or some other location at which the agreement was formed, or in exact cases where you don't have the specific area or the management agreement is not of the type that covers a specific on ground area, or if you like, and so it's your choice to choose the most appropriate one you know and again read the read the standard to to understand some of the context around that.
And both of them, however, are complete. They all have the full set of fields, and for any particular management agreement that you are reporting, it should be in one or the other, but never in both.
Chris Jackson (DELWP)
And we might just pause there for a moment, and we've got a question in the chat. But also I'm just recognizing that those two bits that you've just gone through were.
And required significant conversation in the standard outputs parts, so it's probably a good spot to just allow that conversation there to sink in for a tick. So Darren Baldyga has asked, are there any topology rules between fence, line and Polygon?
Come from the strategic point of view. It's a good question and no, not from a strategic point of view. If the we haven't denoted a distance, for example between fence line and fence Polygon, the assumption is that they're contiguous. But if you're putting a fence line in a particular error in a new area to protect a new area that's not necessarily contiguous, that's still counted as part of the Polygon.
So Ian come in if you can add any other any topology rules actually in the geodatabase itself.
Ian Miller (Guest)
Uh, you know Christy, anything I'll add to that is that, as you say, there are no topology rules defined in the geodatabase. It is technically possible to define them, so it requires the fence line to be sitting on the boundary of the Polygon, but we haven't locked things together that tightly at this stage.
Uh, my view is that dealt would be doing on receipt of data and on validation of the data would no doubt be looking at the coincidence of those related features to ensure there are appropriate. But we're not at this stage technically blocking you from creating them where they're not.
Adam G Hood (DELWP)
I'm just, uh, Chris, can I just sorry this is very much a logistical thing.
And if you can ask, it's nice to ask people to turn on the camera and perhaps read out there question those questions. The chat doesn't get recorded, but the this interaction does, and that's nice. If people are willing. If they're not, we can read about 2.
So is Aaron more things next?
Chris Jackson (DELWP)
Yeah, sure Aaron it feel comfortable mate. No turn on your camera and ask away.
Aaron Findlay (GBCMA)
I guess it was just a clarification about what we've been asked for here. Is this is there is a feedback being sought on the database schema or is this a final version being released?
Chris Jackson (DELWP)
With regards to version three, which this this one is, we're considering this a final, but that doesn't mean that I'm not accepting feedback. The feedback will stay open via the DOT standard data email address, which will be on every tab of the website, and if there are significant things that we need to change in there, I'll actually put those up through the project Control Board to get them changed.
Aaron Findlay (GBCMA)
Thanks.
Chris Jackson (DELWP)
Any further questions before I let them keep going?
Chris Jackson (DELWP)
Alright, I have the UN.
Ian Miller (Guest)
OK thanks.
Alright, so let's move on to some of the other changes, or I guess the other major change, and this is too.
The why the standard handles or the way the Geodatabase will handle.
Some fields in the standard that are documented as allowing multiple values to be selected, so if you look through the standard and you look at the description of the attributes for each output type.
You say from the wording that in some cases it says select one or a value and in some cases it explicitly invites you to select one or more values as appropriate to the nature of the information being entered.
And that's not new. The previous version of the standard in Geodatabase had the same thing in the previous version. For those of you that used it, you will know that in a number of the outputs where that was the case, the way it was handled was to provide 3 copies of that field.
So for example, you know there are a number of outputs that have an attribute called specific type that allows you to provide some more detail on the nature of the type of thing being described in that output, and a number of those do allow multiple entries, and so there might have in the previous version being 3 fields called. You know specific type, one specific Type 2 specific Type 3, and when you were entering data into that geodatabase.
You had the option of filling out one or two or three fields as required to describe it.
Yeah, that was nice and easy to use.
This, but it was an area where there were some organisations had issues because it limited and then to selecting a maximum of three values.
And whilst that limit may not be a big issue in terms of, for example specific types, it tended to be more of an issue in terms of fields that were allowing the entry of species, and so if you were doing some revenge work and you wanted to record the specific species that you were using to revegetate with, clearly there are going to be cases where you are using more than three species to revegetate, and so some organisations found that set of three values.
And limiting in some circumstances, and to the point where they felt it devalued the data that they are able to report.
This was discussed. We had a number of sort of consultation sessions with key users.
And we discussed the alternative, which is to more user what's called a relational approach. For those of you that are familiar with that sort of database technology or terminology, where rather than having a set of repeated fields, you have a separate table in which you can record those values, and therefore you can put as many rows in that separate table as you like.
And that gives people the flexibility they warned, but it is more complicated for organizations that aren't building full on database systems and perhaps want a simpler approach. And so the decision was to support a hybrid. And so in this geodatabase we actually support both approaches, and so in essence, what that means is.
For each field that allows multiple values, we will.
You can make that in two ways and rather than reading the theory, let's go and have a look at that in practice.
And so let's look at a uh over abundant wildlife species. So I'll go and find.
Over abundant wildlife. Wherever it is, environmental works. So if I open up over him over abundant wildlife.
You say if I Scroll down that there is a species attribute here and you'll see that as with the previous version of the geodatabase we delivered, we are delivering three different species fields that can be entered.
Alternatively if we go back to the geodatabase structure you remember I talked about the fact that there are a series of feature tables here.
And if you look at them, if not too small on your screen to read, you say this one here is named over abundant wildlife species.
So this is the relational table we are providing, in which you can record multiple species values for an over abundant wildlife output record.
And if I open up that feature table.
You notice that it has very little in it.
It is not intended to be the place where you record the details of your over abundant wildlife.
Output that happens in the main feature class.
It has, apart from the object ID, which is an Israeli required field. Only two field, output ID and species.
Output ID same discussion we've had previously with multiple geometry types.
This is the key linking field between this record and the main over bundled wildlife record, and again, This is why this field is both unique and mandatory and then we have a single species field here and so the idea here is that if you wish to use this relational approach.
You would create a recording the over abundant wildlife feature class.
But you would choose not to populate the species 1/2 and three fields in that feature class instead. In the over abundant wildlife species feature table.
You would create.
One or more records.
Including in theory any number of more records.
Each of which had the same output ideas, what I'll call the parent record.
And each of which gave a different species value.
That you wish to relate to that over abundant wildlife output record.
Yeah, of course.
That can lead to confusion, and the rule is that you are not allowed to use both for the same record. So you need to make a choice as to whether you're going to use the three fields within the main record to report the species.
If you don't have more than three species, if if your approach prefers to use that simpler. What I call a flat approach, do that.
If however, you wish to use the relational table, then do not put anything into those three species records, but instead provide the feature table with the related values.
And again, there's not a technical limitation being coded into the geodatabase to stop you using both.
But Wendel Bloods the provided data they will be examining it and if they find records where for the same output ID?
There is data in both the three species fields, for example, and the related species table.
And then they'll reject that data as invalid and come back to the organization and work with them to resolve that issue.
Just one last thing. I'll briefly mention there. You may be saying.
Why is this feature table not sitting nicely inside this feature data set next to the feature class to which it relates, unfortunately, is really geodatabases. Do not allow feature tables to be included in feature data set folders, which is a little bit messy of the Azure environment and so unfortunately all of the feature tables that relate to any of the feature classes within any of these feature datasets are required to sit out here at the root level.
And so it's a little bit visually messy, but functionally it doesn't make any difference.
OK, well that's the end of that section, so we'll pause again and see if anybody got any questions on that last element.
Chris Jackson (DELWP)
Yes, we've got one in a chat from Aaron.
Aaron Findlay (GBCMA)
Actually it was just a question about multi value fields being supported in Arcgis server feature services, but I think as you finish that somewhat answered that question is that they're not particular field type, it's just a different way of recording the information in a related table.
Ian Miller (Guest)
Exactly and those of you that are, you know, very familiar with arc, juiciness, technical manner will know that act just supports various types of joins and relates which are intended to help link these different tables together.
You can create those.
Uhm, we haven't. In fact, war on this issue. I'm, I might just quickly demonstrate what this looks like because I did set up an example here.
And you see here I've got a vegetation feature class here.
Uh, and I created a few entries in it and I've got the vegetation specific activity featured table that is related to that. Now this is not defined in the geodatabase because you define these things in an MXD's or a map documents, but this is currently defined so that if I query that.
Vegetation output you'll see all of the sort of standard data here.
And you'll notice I haven't filled out any of my specific activity fields here, but because I've defined this as a relationship with in my map document, you'll notice here that the view I get shows me the various records that I've created in the vegetation specific activity table, sort of hierarchically linked into that record.
So, as I say, this is not something that's defined in a geodatabase structure. It's something you defined in the configuration of your map document.
And most of the Esri software on the web software geocortex, for example, if you're using that is capable of supporting those relationships.
So if you've created the data in those feature tables linked to feature datasets are classes.
Ending the map document that you publish into your web environment. You had configured these relationships and then most of those pieces of software will give end users the functionality of being able to visually drill through in a similar way to the way that I've just shown there.
Chris Jackson (DELWP)
Thanks in any other questions on that one before we keep moving.
OK, let's go.
Ian Miller (Guest)
OK, so that's probably all of the sort of what's new or what's changed content, and I want to move now into more practical areas. What is it you're actually going to be provided with? And how do you use it? And what happens if you're not measuring user?
So first thing I want to cover off, he's just briefly, what will you be provided with and you'll be provided apart from documentation with two versions of the GEODATABASE, you'll be provided with a file geodatabase, so that is a directory structure with a dot where the directory has the dot GDB name that will be delivered to you as a zipped folder, and that's ready for use. It's what I've been demonstrating to you so far in Ark.
Catalog in Arcmap so you know unzip it.
Make a copy somewhere that you want to actually start using, and it's. It's directly ready for you to use in in Arcgis Desktop Art Pro. Any of those environments.
Some of you, however, are using more enterprise. Do you databases, so you may have SQL Server, Oracle or Postgres SQL.
Some enterprise databases and you have Arcgis server licenses and you want to create this geodatabase within those environments.
And you kind of course, just use that file geodatabase and in in our catalog you can effectively drag and drop that into your database and it'll automatically generate it.
But the preferred way I think the better way is to use an XML workspace export. So we provide a dot XML version of this geodatabase.
This and you use that to create an enterprise geodatabase and it will work across any of the different.
Some other relational database types do you might use and I won't go through it in detail, but essentially there's a due date and there's a tool in the Arctic tool box called create enterprise geodatabase.
You would run that to create an empty enterprise geodatabase.
This if you're in that space, you'll know that that's the point at which you have to provide your licensing information to to geodatabase enable that new enterprise database.
And once you've got an empty geodatabase, you can just right mouse on that geodatabase in arc catalog and choose the import XML workspace option.
And there are few options there. In particular though, you would take schemer only because there is no data provided in the in the file geodatabase that we're giving you. Obviously there's only the structure and the domains, and they're all imported using the schemer only option, and just a note. Make sure you never import this into an existing geodatabase because the import XML workspace effectively will erase everything in an existing enterprise geodatabase, so it's really intended.
And for the first import that you do.
So the other two different formats that we provide and they will provide. And I think that will meet everybody's needs.
Chris Jackson (DELWP)
Hey, and I might just pause there because it's relevant to that. That conversation. I've got a question from Anthony that's important. There anything you want to ask away?
Anthony Keenan
I just had a question about the XML cannot be directly imported into an arc online environment. Or do you need to?
These parties present intermediate range.
Ian Miller (Guest)
Well, that's an excellent question, Anthony and your you've exceeded my knowledge in that. I haven't tried to do that in artisan online I'm. I suspect it would not be possible.
I suspect you would need to import it locally or you might be better off opening up file geodatabase and then using Arcmap or Arcpro's ability to.
Export that are uploaded to Arcgis Online, but I'm afraid I'm not an expert in that area in Arcgis online.
Anthony Keenan
We have a separate offline chat, sometime Ian about that.
Ian Miller (Guest)
Sure.
Chris Jackson (DELWP)
Any others before we get moving?
OK, let's keep going.
Ian Miller (Guest)
Right, the next thing I'll just again aligning cover this briefly. It's sort of going a little bit beyond, you know the what. They'll be sort of doing in delivering this geodatabase, but.
You know it's. It's not out of the question that you might want to have some additional fields in the geodatabase.
Uhm, there's nothing wrong with doing that. As long as you're not modifying the standard fields.
And so you know, you might create the file geodatabase or your enterprise, do your database and you might want some additional fields for your local use. Maybe they're providing linkages into other systems. Maybe there are places that you're using to keep interim values or notes, or various other things that are part of your business process but are not really what will finally be reported to DELWP. And so you know, I think there's no problem with you doing that.
And within those sorts of limits. And again, there's nothing difficult about that. It's all just completely standard stuff, so you know, if you open up a.
The copy of the day.
Adam G Hood (DELWP)
Then it's Adam here just before you go there, and I know that's the classic way that'll be in the text on the side, but it won't come up in the meeting, so I'm going to repeat it.
because we have to we have to . Aaron Finley provided a response that you want to just speak that out. Aaron, that might be helpful, thanks.
Aaron Findlay (GBCMA)
I mean I guess to import the database schema into Arcgis online instead of using the XML document you actually just use the blank file geodatabase and your uploaded talk just online, and if it will create a hosted feature service.
Ian Miller (Guest)
Alright great, thanks, that's good information.
Adam G Hood (DELWP)
Excellent hope that helps then sorry and just timely.
Ian Miller (Guest)
Good.
OK, so as I say, if if you decide you need to add an additional attributes for your local use, you can of course do that in in very easily. It's just a matter of coming down and adding a new field in here.
Sure why it's not giving me an empty Rd. Typically it would. I must have it locked. Sorry in another area.
But yeah, typically you'll get an empty row at the bottom, and it's simply a matter of coming in and typing in the empty row and adding additional fields in. You know, putting whatever data types, etc you want on them, so there's no challenge to doing that.
And the it's recommended that you do something to make it clear that those fields are not part of the standard. So for example, you could use the same.
From enterprise abbreviation in organizational abbreviation that you're going to use in your output ID and just prefix each of your local fields with that.
So that it's quite clear to everybody in your organization which fields are part of the standard in which fields are not part of the standard and, and then when? When submitting to DELWP.
I'm not sure I won't speak on behalf of DELWP as to, whether they would prefer you remove all of your local fields before you submit, or whether you can submit the local field, but they'll only import the standard fields that might need to be in a subsequent conversation, but the important thing is to not modify the standard fields in any way or their names, or reuse them for different purposes, and to make sure that if you are adding local fields, it's completely clear.
Which ones are local? In which part of the standard?
You may also wish to add domain values and this is probably less likely because again.
And the domain values are based on the standard and our fixed and. And if you have any concerns about the current domain values, that's as Chris said, that's a discussion you need to take up with DELWP, and that will need to go through a moderation approval process to decide whether they're appropriate changes to make.
There are some domains, however, that have not been pre populated and these are some of the species lists, etc. Obviously those lists are long, you know, often many thousands of entries. They change regularly. The set of entries that are relevant to your particular organization or area are going to be different, and so in some of those cases you may go in and specifically set appropriate values into those domains to support your entry.
And again, you can edit those directly just using that properties field we saw before of the geodatabase to change those domains.
I'm just a bit of advice if.
If you're wanting to do that in a significant way, you know. If, for example, you want to populate a whole bunch of weed species, and you've got you know 20 or 30 or 50 weed species that you want to put into that domain to make it easier for you to enter.
Upon entering it through the Properties tab is probably a little bit painful if you tried to do that, it's OK for the odd one or two, but it's a pain to do for a lot.
And there are some good artist tools such as demand a table and table domain that allow you to effectively export out of domain into a standard database table.
And then you can edit or important to that table using. You know SQL Server or Oracle tools and then you could use domain to table to load that back into the domain. So if you're doing anything of a batch nature, you're probably better off going to tables 1st and doing it.
That's probably about all. Could check any. There's anything else to talk about there.
Chris Jackson (DELWP)
We have a hand upon his coming found out.
We have Darren yes ask away.
Darren Baldyga
So yeah, I'm going to rather than ask you a question, I'm going to explain a current process and I guess you can tell me whether this geodatabase will support it or not. We have about 1000 management activities that we report on every year and so to handle the large amounts I do a merge of the reporting templates and our staff format together. And then I use the field calculator to populate the.
Reporting templates so would I be able to override the domain values. You know I might have exactly the same value.
You know it might be contain. Can I write contain down that that field or not? You know 1000 times.
Ian Miller (Guest)
Yeah, as long as it meets the domain the domain list, you could just noting that the domain values are actually stored in the field as.
Code value, so you depending on how you're writing that in, you need to be writing in using the value of that domain rather than the label.
But yes, as long as you're getting the same values, it won't stop you from writing it in.
Are you doing that like in a Python script or something though?
Darren Baldyga
I know it's a manual process.
So that because we have to quality control every single one of them, so you know, I literally go back field there equals that field.
Ian Miller (Guest)
Yeah look, I suspected a worker must have been. I haven't done that specifically, but I think as long as you're getting your plate, you're copying it a value that matches the allowable codes. I suspect it'll work.
But at this time I'm not an expert in that, so if anybody else has advice on that.
Darren Baldyga
OK thanks.
Chris Jackson (DELWP)
We have a possible answer from Beck Horsburgh. If she would like to.
Turn on him. I can give us an answer.
Beck Horsburgh
Uh, I just said all we need to do is make sure you've got the code in there and just field calculate from the code.
Ian Miller (Guest)
Yeah. OK, any other questions?
Alright, well look, we’re nearing the end so we're on the home straight let me just go on to the next section so the next section is for those of you that may not be as reuses, or may not only be as reuses. You may be asking, can we get any value out of this geodatabase in a non Esri world? And the answer is, you know good news and bad news.
Please and yes you can but it's not quite as valuable in those environments as it is in the Azure environment, so.
There are two different pieces of software that I briefly looked at. QGIS and Mapinfo Pro, which probably covers the main systems that people are using. If you're not using Esri.
So both of these pieces of software can now open the file geodatabase that we give you.
So yeah, both of them have.
Some have that capability in Mapinfo Pro ads via what they call the universal translator.
And but in both of those pieces of software, the file geodatabase that you open is not editable.
So you can open it if it has data in it, you can view that data. You can view the structure, but you can't add and edit data in that environment. And so again, the best approach is going to be for you to open the file geodatabase and then use the software to export those feature classes into a native format for that particular GIS package.
And so for example in QGS you could be saving them out as shapefiles, but you know probably the preferable version. There is Geo packages if you're aware of what they are.
And the in some ways not dissimilar to the idea of a file geodatabase. It's a single disk file which can store many different map layers or feature classes, and so it's a pretty efficient format.
Uh, in in Mapinfo pro? I guess that's more likely to be tabbed files than anything else.
So you can do that, and once you've got into those different formats then you can.
You can edit as required. Not going to kid you, there's a little bit of work in that you have to go through at the moment. You know 36 feature classes and export each of them into the into the format, and then you'd create a version that you would be using for your capture and editing. But it does save you having to manually recreate those tables. Now. The bad news I guess, is that.
That those data structures in both QGIS and Mapinfo Pro do not support domains, so one of the benefits of the Esri file geodatabase or enterprise geodatabases this domain concept?
Where the list of allowable values is stored as a as a structured part of the data itself.
And that's not possible within the geopackage and as far as I'm aware and I must say I'm not a mapping for user. I don't believe it's possible within a tabbed file itself. Both of those software packages however do allow user defined forms and define fields.
The difference is that.
That definition is stored not in the data structure. It's stored in the project file.
OK, so I'll just briefly show you what that looks like in Q. Just I won't demonstrate in that bin flow.
So he's Q just running.
So I mean different views so I can.
Get to the field. I need to get to there. So I mean Q just I'm going to go to my browser tab so that I can. Say my file system. Apologies, I did have this set up before, but it's. Going to sleep and it's going to go back and rework what's on the file system.
I knew something wasn't going to go smoothly. This is it.
OK, here, we are so if you see here. This is my file geodatabase so this SOV 3 demonstration dot. GD B is a copy of the Standard outputs version 3 geodatabase. So it's a standard. Esri file geodatabase and I can open it up and you'll see within it a whole series of feature classes and feature tables. Now the first thing you'll notice is that they're no longer a group that all into feature datasets and that's because.
Or like you just can read the file geodatabase structure. He doesn't understand or respect feature datasets.
So you no longer get them nicely grouped in a substructure. There simply presented as a flat list.
in in alphabetical order, including the feature tables, but clearly you know they're showing the same sorts of icons here, indicating the geometry type or whether it's a table, and so on. And so you know as you can include this, I can just write mouse that and choose add a layer to product their project and it will come into my layer list.
He's one that I prepared earlier.
So you can see here I've got a, uh, a layer here called channel and if you look at the pop up text in your Eagles I'd you'll notice that's coming directly from the Esri feature class, so it's been added from the Esri feature class. Of course it has nothing in it, it's an empty one that that we delivered so you can't see anything and you'll notice if I go to my toolbar here, my edit pencil up here is greyed out. I'm not allowed to go into edit mode on that because it knows it's a feature data set.
But if I go and look at the properties and you can see here on the fields tab, you can see all the standard fields that I was showing you before in the feature class, so it correctly sees the fields it sees all of their data types and so on, and so it does provide you with that ability to explore.
But not to edit. And so in this case what I've done is I've gone to that feature class from the feature data set and I've done export save features as and I've chosen geopackage. Although there's a variety of different formats you could choose.
And I've gone and selected a geopackage. You know given a layer name and I've you know filled out all the other fields I need to fill out and Long story short, this is the result of that exercise and so this is now in a geopackage and if I come back to my browser.
Unfortunate looks like every time I swap over it takes.
More time than is desirable.
So you'll see here I've got a, uh, a geopackage that's this dot geopackage file and if I open that up you'll see I have my channel feature class inside there. I haven't exported all of them. I've only explored about one example and so this is an exact copy of the.
From the feature class. But now in Geopackage and fully editable. In fact it's currently in edit mode and you can see there that I've edited and in the same way I could come through here and you know, creating new feature and.
Do a standard create and it would give you all of the attributes that are there now. You'll notice though that these attributes.
And do not have drop down lists associated, and that's because the domains are not being respected.
You may notice that there is a drop down on this standard version field, and that's because I've done some extra work within Q just to define that list.
But as I say, that list is not defined within the geopackage itself, it's defined within my cutest project file and in particular if I go to my attributes form and go to the standard version you'll see here I've defined this widget type is value map and that allows me to type in the code values and their descriptions. Now I have manually entered those from the documentation that I'll show you in a moment and that's saved in my queue just project.
While not in the geodatabase so you know it would be a fair bit of work to go through and do that across all the different domain types, but that would be the way in Q, just that you would create that capability.
And Mapinfo don't know it that well, but I suspect there are similar capabilities.
I'm such a lot of really want to talk about with QGIS and Mapinfo Pro. Hopefully that gives you a bit of a point or if you're using one of those products about how you can shortcut some of the work necessary to make this work in that world.
Last checking before I do the final session, which is about documentation.
The questions.
Chris Jackson (DELWP)
Not now, I think we're good.
Ian Miller (Guest)
OK, let's move on to the final section. So in the final section I just want to quickly run you through what you're going to get in terms of packages so that you.
I'm sort of understand it when it comes.
I can navigate my very.
Complex set of folders here and find the one I want. This is the one I want.
So when DELWP sends you out this package, this is what will be in the folder. You'll have standard outputs V3 dot GDB, so that is the empty file geodatabase that provides the structure.
You'll have standard outputs V3 DOT XML. That's the workspace XML file that you used to import to create an enterprise to your database, and you'll have two documents. These aren't necessarily the final names. These are working versions. There's the primary guidance document which largely covers the content we have presented today, but in a bit more detail.
And so that's the primary document that you go back to. Read to reinforce what we've discussed today, or look up some more information.
And there's also a spreadsheet that shows you, in a very detailed way, the values in the domains are very useful. Document if you want to use it to populate your domains some other way, or perhaps into Q just, etc.
But also to see in a very detailed way what has changed between the two. Let me just very quickly show you what those documents look like so that you're familiar with them. This is the main guidance document. This is a recent draft, but not the very final version that dealt will send out and you will see that it from a table of contents. It covers very much what we've just been through.
So I'm not going to go through that at all. All the sort of standard information we've discussed a little bit more detail and probably the thing that is different that we haven't talked about is just this very detailed data model diagram. So this gives you a diagrammatic representation of all of the feature classes and feature tables, and it brings together the feature tables with the feature class to which they relate.
And these are in sections based upon the chapters. So this is for environmental works.
Earthworks emergency species with its related event type table and so on. So this is just a single consolidated place where you can go to check this information. It gives you all the attributes it gives you. There is real data type it described. It gives you the name of the domain if they are domain related and it gives you the default code value and so it's a great place to go to quickly check up on information and so it works through all of the different.
Some feature classes and then the second attachment gives you a visual representation of every domain, and as I said, there's quite a few 9 pages of them, and so for each domain. If I just dreaming very quickly and it gives you the name of the domain and importantly, it gives you the set of values in the domain and each of the code values that they relate to.
And so it's a very handy reference that you can use.
These, when you're doing your design or just to check on things when you're entering data, etc.
And then the second document in the final thing I'll cover is the spreadsheet.
So again, I'm not going to go through it in detail, it's have to an overview here, which gives you some color coding. But just to quickly take you through the tabs and this first tab gives you each domain and its value. So no, nothing different to what you just saw in the PDF. But clearly now this is an Excel spreadsheet, so you might be able to export this out to CSV or copy and paste, or it's just a a more usable format. Color coding the green or the ones have been added new.
Yellow or things that are being changed and red are things that have been deleted. There aren't many, but there are some.
And then it goes through each of the feature classes in detail, or each of the outputs. Or I should say in detail.
This is a very detailed part of the documentation. It's primarily for those of you at a systems level who are looking at migrating from the previous version to this version, and essentially what it's giving you is.
The changes between the previous version of the Geodatabase and the new version of the GEODATABASE at an attribute level.
So it's keeping you blow by blow new attributes that have come in attributes that have been removed. Changes in in feature in in field types.
Changes in domains etc. So it's an extremely detailed analysis of exactly what's changed between the previous and the new version of the of the geodatabase.
And then finally, this is similar to the domain list that you saw in one of the earlier sheets, but it's a bit more detailed in that gives you the code numbers as well, so quite a lot of detailed documentation. I wouldn't dive in there as your first port of call, but hopefully it provides the supporting information you need to.
To do your analysis.
Right, that's me done.
I might stop sharing.
Chris Jackson (DELWP)
Thanks saying you're getting a bit of kudos for the spreadsheet as well mate, as we thought that might be the case. Looks like it's going to be helpful document.
Adam G Hood (DELWP)
Nothing like a spreadsheet to get the afternoon guy.
Right?
Good stuff.
OK, it's questions and answers Chris here and it's pretty comprehensive what we got there. So that's really great. Thanks Dan.
And are there any other questions if people want to put their hand up and or?
Anthony Keenan
Why not?
Chris Jackson (DELWP)
Yes, there's one from Anthony. go ahead Anthony.
Anthony Keenan
Uhm, I suspension. There weren't many fields in your spreadsheet. They were deleted, but there were some comments. Just wondering for some historical data.
Adam G Hood (DELWP)
Yeah, stop sharing.
Anthony Keenan
There might be information in those fields.
01:15:01.030 --> 01:15:05.820
Anthony Keenan
Have which how should we migrate them into something into version three? Do they have a?
You know, I feel that correlates in the new version.
Under a different output, perhaps?
Ian Miller (Guest)
I look, I think the interesting question, and I'll let Chris had to go in a moment. I guess there are sort of two parts to this question. The first is I think you start at a reading of the new standard to understand what , what it now requires.
And in some cases, as you say, it may be that fields have been removed because the information would that was in that field has been incorporated into a new attribute that maybe in aggregate or a you know a combined attribute in some way. And so I guess in those cases.
You would be looking to build a migration process that took your old data and re structured or merge it as required into the new field.
In in some cases, though, I think there have been some field removed and I'll let Chris comment on that. In that case, it may be that you.
I'm just keep those in urology database or you might even choose to have those fields in the new geodatabase as local fields if that was a value to you as a way of retaining the data, but they are no longer part of what you should be reporting.
Uh, like Chris, I guess. Cover off that from a business perspective.
Chris Jackson (DELWP)
Yeah, that's exactly the case. So in most scenarios are we recognize the dramas with legacy. If you go deleting fields so they usually the case where they're redundant because we've groups them into a new classification.
often this was a consequence of the environment type being added. We've deleted some of the output types that are no longer relevant, but that it's clearly obvious what they've been mapped back into. So you can either manually map those across or where there where there have been complete deletions. We've still in the geodatabase. We've still kept the old domain values in there.
So you can we DELWP doesn't expect you to report on those olds domains. But if for the stability of the geodatabase or the system that you're using, you can still record against those. If as and says, you need a local version that some historically. Uh, compatible.
Adam G Hood (DELWP)
It's not just crawl kind, so I think in in a lot of cases in such a. Dragging back to IANS point.
where there's a question about that. Go to the standard because there's more explanation in the standard now than there was before, and a lot of those kind of issues are explained here, I think. And then the other thing is the only thing I will say is that.
The temptation to hold on to that moment in the transition between where we were and where we're going is is very strong. I get it. One thing that you have to make sure that you don't do is to continue the process of reporting locally into those.
what I would call out dated, kind of expectations of a standard when the reason why we went to the new place, it's because of changing policy change in technology change in approach or just an update in the thinking. So take it on board, have a good look at the standard first, but yet all of those solutions are very valid. But that's been described but and I get that your systems.
You've got to have legacy. I know that.
but yeah, terms of make just ensure that you kind of try to get onto the new space. That's all I'll say from a business and program perspective.
Ian Miller (Guest)
And so I'll just add one more thing that I I probably should have mentioned in my presentation.
Come to try and avoid problems in migration and I think as Chris alluded to, we have deliberately ensured that we never reuse code values in domains. So if there was a domain and there have been some values that have been discontinued and some values that have been added, we have left the previous the discontinued code values completely unused, so you'll never be in a situation where the new domain will incorrectly assume that that code number means something different. It will simply no longer be presented as a domain result.
And that should give you a little bit more control to ensure that you don't end up in trouble. If that you may have done. Had we inappropriately reused code values.
Chris Jackson (DELWP)
Next one is from Aaron.
Aaron Findlay (GBCMA)
Just I guess it's on historical data.
Rick, I appreciate the benefit that not reusing code values actually has to us in terms of. How that helps us, but I suppose I just point out that.
The historical data issue is a shared responsibility between with DELWP and the CMAs, particularly because we've been submitting the data to you for years and years and years, so you have the same problem we do in terms of all the data we've ever submitted to you. If the type no longer exists, what're you going to do with that data, and how would you translate it to the new field? It's not just a question for us, and what we do, it's because your data is our daughter, and vice versa. So in terms of working through those things I guess.
We don't want to have a scenario where. Cmas interpreted one way 10 different ways. DELWP opened up their own way and now none of that historical value is consistent and usable anymore. So I guess we’re hoping as part of this process that we'd get some direction from gulp about what we do with the host Oracle data that doesn't align just so that we are all on the same page about it. You have to come up with a solution just like we do, unless you're just going to dispose the data and not worry about it, which is a way forward for you to do it, but I'd hope.
That that's not going to be the way forward that you would.
Type because you know, we've been a lot of time collecting it over all the years and submitting it to.
Chris Jackson (DELWP)
Yes, the solution that we come up with is basically the central repository concept. We will have to struggle with these ideas the same way, but initially it's going to be through extraction, transformation and loading tools.
So we'll do our best to design those tools to quality control and do the mapping, and we're going to have a bunch of historical errors and problem troubleshooting that's for sure, but there will be an associated element to the project where we go back through the historical data and make sure it can be accessed either lives similar to the incoming, the data from version three, or in a different frame set. For example, we create an environment that is a point in time and you go back to that for historical data.
And you each. Perhaps each time we do a new version, we actually have to report a demarcation, but at this stage we haven't crossed that bridge and I'm working with some data specialists at the moment to try and design those tools.
Adam G Hood (DELWP)
And can I just say as well? I'll add to this because I these? This is a perennial problem with no. E pox of data. or data collection transformation. Whatever, this is not an unusual one and Chris is answered, there is just the sign of exactly that. You're right.
DELWP have to deal with it just as much as anyone else does. So yeah, I agree with that, and I suppose one of the key things that probably hearing what you've asked is that.
As DELWP work through it and we don't have an answer, you can hear that as dealt works through it like we have always, we've always had to work through these issues just like anyone does that we share and interact with the CMA's as we start to think about and provide some what we think of the solutions that we recognize other best ones and try to minimize the 10 different approaches. That's a really good point actually, now just say.
Really quickly on that, before we go to the next one that there is an intention for us and I should have said at the start again. And if people who weren't at the other seminar is that we've we have. And I know Katie is definitely gone now, but we do have funding that's being provided in two.
Come into the CMAs, but it will. We will support through the next few months where we're actually going to go into specific thematic areas to run workshops and discuss specific areas of.
issues concerns. Just to build awareness and understanding of the new standard, and at this stage, where probably are likely to have a more specific one that's around this technical work that we've talked about, which will be a workshop?
That talks about that work goes into the kind of questions, not necessarily the questions you've asked today, but the sort of issues that we that are legacy that will come online as you start to build and use this tool. And so I imagine that will be likewise went towards the end of that. But yeah, that'll just that should happen before there's definitely end of the calendar year sometime before, hopefully end of November, but we'll see.
Chris Jackson (DELWP)
So I've got 2 minutes left in our meeting. Uhm, I've got a website. A quick preview of the website where most of this is going to be hosted and I may have to answer. I'll show just so that it's on the record. I'll show you guys where this stuff is going to be, and then I'll come back to questions for those who have the ability to stick around.
Uh, so just very quickly I'll share screen because this is where I want you to know that you're going to go for the supporting documentation and other products as we develop them.
Did you guys see that?
Adam G Hood (DELWP)
Yes.
Ian Miller (Guest)
Yes.
Chris Jackson (DELWP)
OK, so uh, as was described in the earlier parts of the output data standard project, we've got adult level website, so this is located on the main dealt page. There's a drop down menu.
And it's now at the bottom there. If I just shift Adam.
There is an output data and delivery standards tab at the bottom. It's not live right now, that's why it's got marks around it, so this is the draft that we have currently.
We, uh, pending a signature which were expecting.
Possibly by the end of the week we'll see, but very soon.
Uhm, it has the tabs relevant to everything we've covered today on. The important ones are for the new versions of the standards and the links to other standards from other groups are now linked together in here.
The framework switch over arch this stuff and the reporting requirements.
NPR tab for those who want to go back to historical stuff.
A delivery standards compendium is in here and will grow this list. This is obviously just the DELWP list at the moment, but that's a side project that's growing that list.
And importantly, the online I'm recordings will be stored up here so that you guys can access this information later to review what's being said and.
Come the fall geodatabase and another on the explanation. The documentation is all going to be stored here.
So I'll stop sharing for today.
Uh, we’re not going to provide that website until it's actually signed off. What you'll get today is actually a zip file at the end of the meeting. I'll email it to everyone who's involved in this meeting and you'll get a zip file with the files that even showed before the latest versions of all of the files.
Just before I go to questions in the chat, does anyone have questions about that?
Anthony Keenan
Is there a timeline until you make that public?
Ah, yes, so as soon as possible it literally is just waiting on a signature so you can see that all of the design work has been done and we're just waiting on the authority to make it live.
Uhm, I anticipate sometime in the next few days, basically.
Anthony Keenan
K.
Adam G Hood (DELWP)
Yeah, I'll just say that in addition to that, sorry, I know that we're done then we really need to finish. So and then I will actually finish the meeting and people can stay in US. Chris questions if they like I and I just want to really highlight the fact that there are, as I said at the start, will be collecting and correlating FA cues and providing that back out to you all. So recognize I've answered, Daren went inside but it's a little bit related to what I was just about to say.
Uh, Chris. His point about the website is that this is a.
And that's the signature question we're now putting this on the whole of DELWP website. This is a really important step into this. This is a DELWP output data standard. It's the minimum standard and these tools. This information that standard will all be put on a broad dealt section of the website hints the needs for the, uh, a range of signatures that allows allows us to put that in that spot.
I'm so just bear with us on that. That's all I can ask. I just want to say a message. I know Chris would too. But just on behalf of us I just want to say a massive thanks to Ian Miller for the presentation today. I think there was pretty comprehensive, very easy to understand really technical enough for us to really be able to get our teeth into with bated breath. What we're about to receive, so that's fantastic. Thanks for that day and.
Uhm, everyone is just about to receive the stuff that you just described. It's on the website. Chris so.
Well, what do I highly recommend is that people take it away, plow into it, you know, try to break it as they say and let us know all your questions and queries. That'll be fantastic and I just thought quick thank you to Janette 2 for helping record. Take notes and all these other things. Is there anything you want to add? Chris before we pulled out?
Chris Jackson (DELWP)
pretty well covered, so just email me if you've got my direct email address. That's fine, but the official one that'll be on the website is delwpstandarddata@DELWP.vic.gov.au, That's where all of the standards, feedback and responses are going to be handled through going forward, and that will be listed on the website as well.
So any more feedback? I've been getting feedback from some of you and I thank you very much for it. It's great detail. I'm collecting all of that in and fake documents and that will be on the web page. My detailed responses to that for you.
Adam G Hood (DELWP)
Alright, alright, I think that's it. I mean I I really appreciate everyones want desire to say more ask more so just do it but send it to that email that's fantastic and enjoy the rest of your days wherever you may be. If you happen to be in regional Victoria all the best for getting out and about beyond the five kilometre radius and hopefully you get in a kayak or a canoe, see.
I'm thanks guys, that's great. See you later.
Ian Miller (Guest)
Thanks bye.
Chris Jackson (DELWP)
Thank you.
Page last updated: 31/08/23