In recent months, VVG has attracted significant attention from the media, research and government organisations in response to growing interest in the project.
Two Australian publications have recently featured articles on VVG in their magazines. Position, the Australasian magazine of surveying, mapping and geo-information featured VVG in an article in the February/March issue titled Visualising Water Resources.
Landmark, the flagship publication and official ‘voice’ for Victoria’s spatial information community also featured a story on the expansion of Universities into the spatial realm, entitled Regional Universities span the spatial research bridge in the April 2013 edition. The article showcases the University of Ballarat’s growing expertise with spatial projects and featuring the VVG project.
Senior research and technical staff on VVG have also been instrumental in promoting the project at state and national forums. In March, Dr Peter Dahlhaus was invited to present a paper at the Australian Groundwater School at the University of Melbourne with a focus on Groundwater data, collection, monitoring, storage and retrieval. Peter also presented at the Newtech Conference at Colac in March on applied research projects using spatial technologies and drawing largely upon his experiences with the VVG project.
In March, Andrew MacLeod presented a joint paper with GIS Analyst Callum Fairnie from Barwon South West – State Fire Management Planning Support at the Municipal Association of Victoria’s Local Government ICT Group. The paper provided a case study for GIS information distribution in the Colac Otway Shire using VVG to demonstrate how information distribution is enhanced using interoperable approaches and the spatial presentation of data.
The staff working on VVG will showcase the project at upcoming conferences including the Digital Rural Futures Smart Farms Smart Regions Conference in Armidale, NSW in June 2013, and the 2013 International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH Congress) in Perth in September.