Technology Paves the Way for Point-and-Click Project Monitoring

While the end of a project's construction is some-thing to celebrate, it's just the beginning of one of the most important parts of the project - monitoring.

Some projects actually build a base for new wetlands with dredged material and plantings. Once the base is created, other plants and animals will inhabit the new wetland. Other projects create better conditions for wetlands to flourish on their own. Measuring the course of that natural progress is the goal of project monitoring - a process made much easier with the advent of new technology.

Sensing Through Satellites

One key aspect of technology at work in the wetlands is playing an important role for the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Teamed with the U.S. Geological Survey, DNR is responsible for monitoring water quality and other hydrologic aspects of Breaux Act projects. According to Kirk Rhinehart, program supervisor for DNR's Database Analysis Section, the department currently maintains 11 real-time data collection platforms in the Louisiana coastal zone. Each station transmits monitoring information like water level or salinity content to DNR in Baton Rouge via a series of satellite links. "The satellite-linked platforms now enable us to get information hourly, and under emergency situations, data can be collected every 15 minutes," says Rhinehart.

SONRIS/2000

Rhinehart points out that collecting information is only one part of a technology-driven monitoring process. Organizing and distributing that information to the technicians, researchers and experts is just as important.

To that end, DNR recently initiated a major overhaul of its database management systems and is implementing the Strategic Online Natural Resources Information System, known as SONRIS/2000. The Biological Monitoring Database portion of this system, which should be completed by mid-1999, will provide a central repository for all DNR coastal restoration project monitoring data.

"With the new system in place, any person with World Wide Web access can retrieve information about coastal restoration projects in Louisiana," says Rhinehart. "If you want to know the water level at a particular project, all you'll have to do is point and click."