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Desert Channels Queensland (DCQ) Improves Data Collection with Fulcrum
Technology Category
- Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Connectivity Platforms
Applicable Industries
- Agriculture
Applicable Functions
- Field Services
- Quality Assurance
Use Cases
- Remote Asset Management
- Geofencing
Services
- Software Design & Engineering Services
The Challenge
Desert Channels Queensland (DCQ) is a community-based not-for-profit organization that provides funding to assist landowners across the Queensland section of the Lake Eyre Basin to undertake projects that improve water quality, restore ground cover and native vegetation, protect habitat, and rehabilitate erosion. They run multiple projects that are all planned and run based on surveys and data, and all require ongoing monitoring. The challenge was that managing projects over such a vast area used to require compromise due to limited resources. Data collection and processing was time-consuming and only the bare minimum was done. Personnel had to be sent out on survey or landholders would bring in maps, monitoring sheets or GPS points, maps had to be interpreted and digitised, data sheets entered and GPS data downloaded. This was all resource hungry—510,000 square kilometres, numerous projects, 15 staff = big challenges!
About The Customer
Desert Channels Queensland (DCQ) is a community-based not-for-profit organization that operates in the Queensland section of the Lake Eyre Basin. They provide funding to assist landowners across the region to undertake projects that improve water quality, restore ground cover and native vegetation, protect habitat, and rehabilitate erosion. Over the past 12 years, they have run hundreds of projects, all of which are planned and run based on surveys and data, and all require ongoing monitoring. They currently run six major partnership projects involving dozens of landowners. The organization is committed to the sustainable management of the region's natural resources and works closely with landowners and other stakeholders to achieve this goal.
The Solution
DCQ recognized the crowdsourcing model as a means of collecting far greater data than funding would ever allow them to do themselves. They decided to engage landowners, local authority staff and passionate travellers to install the app and collect data, thereby increasing the richness and value of their information exponentially. After evaluating several potential platforms, they settled on Fulcrum for its ease of use, multiple operating systems and platform compatibility, hassle-free customization, offline capability, flexibility, real-time updating of database, near zero time lag in decision making, reliability, and affordability. To encourage landowner participation in Fulcrum data collection, DCQ produced a helpful video showcasing the process. Not only is DCQ now collecting a vastly greater amount of data, the data processing time is dramatically reduced due to the automated Fulcrum process from a simple web map to more complex visualizations. With shareable maps and versatile webhooks, information can easily be displayed for public consumption.
Operational Impact
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