2002/03 FINAL PROJECT REPORT

Project Title Project Acronym Agency Project Manager Email Sponsor Email
Interactive identification of Freshwater Algal Genera in Australia ALGKEY Project Number 02 Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust Dr Tim Entwisle tim.entwisle@rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au 9231 8113 Telephone

Telephone

ABOUT THE PROJECT

Description Project Completed: (Yes, as
planned / Yes, with changes to project scope / No) Was the project completed as planned or were there considerable changes to the project scope or schedule? Provide details where significant variation occurred.

Yes, with no changes to project scope. The project was completed as originally planned; however, the dataset is temporarily housed on a public access server located at AC3 until the problems and associated technical issues with the PlantNET server are fully resolved. As a result, the ALGKEY dataset is accessible via the Australian Freshwater Algae website URL which in turn will become a module of PlantNET. No comment required. 1. Interactive key to NSW algal genera and identification reference database 2. Scanned and databased images and sourced reference data in collections management system 3. Key and images available on the PlantNET website ALGKEY: http://203.202.1.217/algkey/ Australian Freshwater Algae Homepage:

Project Deviations
Document any exceptional or significant changes in project scope

List of Deliverables

Project Website address

For projects without website access provide details of who has access and how this access is made eg. Intranet.

http://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/information_about_plants/botanical_info/aust ralian_freshwater_algae2

FINAL PROJECT SCHEDULE AND COSTS

STAGE and Project Milestone
Prepare project brief and plan Employ Project Officer Identify taxa and characters to be scored Score DELTA data set for key construction Scan and link images and literature Web design, connection to PlantNET and launch

Original Target Completion Date

Actual Completion Date

Budget ($K)

CANRI Expenditure

In-kind Expenditure

Total Expenditure

AUG 2002 AUG 2002 JAN 2003 JUN 2003 JUN 2003 JUN 2003 JUN 2003

AUG 2002 AUG 2002 JAN 2003 JUL 2003 JUL 2003 JUN 2003 JUL 2003

4 000 30 000 14 000 5 000 53 000

1 000 2 000 3 000 5 000 5 000 2 000 18 000

1 000 2 000 7 000 35 000 19 000 7 000 71 000

Total Project

PROJECT REVIEW
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Lessons learnt and recommendations

What have you learnt from this project that you would use again or advise for a similar type of project. What would you do different next time?

Useful references
Please list any documents, specifications, etc which may be useful to others trying to understand the process or outcomes of your project. List any documents which others might want to use in future projects.

This type of project requires an inordinate amount of time and effort dedicated to generating and digitising images. We would therefore recommend that any future project of this nature allow more time for this component of the work, or start with a fully scanned set of images. It was beneficial to the project to make contact with others using the same software (in this case users of DELTA through their discussion list) to solve problems along the way. DELTA (and INTKEY) proved to be a simple and effective program for carrying out this project. Dallwitz et al. (2000). Users guide to the DELTA system. A general system for processing Taxonomic descriptions Edition 4.12. See http://biodiversity.uno.edu/delta/

Project self-evaluation and promotion

Was the project implemented successfully? Do you have any specific indicators of success? (eg no. of website hits or users, user feedback) How has the project been promoted?

The project was implemented successfully and on time. However this did require additional resources from the Trust that were not envisaged at the start of the project (including additional time donated by the project officer employed). No feedback or indications of website hits at this stage but systems are in place to measure this. An earlier version of the key was trialled in an Aquatic Ecology course at University of Technology Sydney, and was very positively received (feedback and suggestions from those labs were incorporated in a later version). The key will be promoted through algal listservers and newsletters, and the NSW Biodiversity Research Network, in September (when linking aspects of the PlantNET site are resolved).

OTHER

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