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Project Aims
The Anglesey Water Vole Project was established in 2001 with the aim being:
To arrest the decline of, and to enhance the water vole populations on Anglesey, such that population networks are viable in the long-term
TopProject Objectives
- To conduct water vole surveys in order to assess the distribution of water vole populations on Anglesey
- To monitor water vole populations in order to assess their long-term viability
- To initiate habitat creation/habitat enhancement projects
- To monitor the spread of American mink (Mustela vison) from the mainland and take appropriate action to avoid their establishment on the Island
- To raise awareness locally about the plight of the water vole
TopThe client's existing system
- Prior to the use of AditSite, Microsoft Access had been used as an in-house database to hold information on vole and mink sightings, sites of interest, surveyors and landowners.
- While this database safely stored the data collected, it did not allow the reporting and analysis required to support the work of the project
- Clearly there was a requirement to load this existing data into AditSite. Because of the complexity of the existing data records and their interrelationships, this was achieved by the Adit support team providing a custom loader
- This got the new system off to a good start with over 1500 records - not a massive data load but far preferable to keying it all in again from scratch
- As soon as the records were loaded, it was possible to run standard reports and graphs, and begin to analyse the data
- Importantly for the project, the use of AditSite now made it possible to map records across the survey area with mapping details of the relevant surveyors and landowners, alongside the data recorded on the water voles
TopSoftware Development
- Basic vole recording was obviously no problem - very much what AditSite is for
- But this particular project was looking for something more: the project leaders were looking to record extra information, relating largely to habitat (for example the type of water course, bank substrate, current land use, fencing, stock impact, vegetation types) but also recording more normal things like other wildlife species
- Initial consideration was given to the use of the extensive standard facilities of AditSite user-defined fields. However the sheer volume of additional data, together with the need to impose some structure on it, made that solution less attractive
- What was needed was an extra detail screen, dedicated to the needs of the Vole Project that could be accessed during normal data input
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- This input screen now allows AditSite users to define a custom data entry screen with their own data fields, captions and (probably best of all) selection lists
- The AditSite support team took into consideration the fact that projects and organisations might need to refine their data input screen in the future
- The data collected by the custom screen is stored as embedded XML* within a special AditSite database field. The stored data can be selected, reported and plotted just like any other data recorded using AditSite.
TopWorking in collaboration with partner organisations
- The Anglesey Water Vole Project works very closely with several other organisations (e.g. CCW, Environment Agency) on Anglesey and Gwynedd, constantly sharing and exchanging data with them
- Extensive use is made of the data export facilities in AditSite, due to the variety of computer-based or manual systems utilised by partner organisations
- While the Adit team would love to see all organisations adopting AditSite, for more efficient and professional environmental recording, we realise that some are constrained by their existing systems. Consequently, when other organisations join or contribute to the Vole Project, the AditSite support team is there to ensure that any unique data interchange requirements can be met
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TopMore Information on the Water Vole
The Water Vole (
Arvicola terrestris) have been in sharp decline in the UK since the beginning of the 20th Century. The decline has been attributed to habitat destruction, water level changes and predation (in particular) by the American Mink. There are many water vole projects around the UK looking for your support. Work to arrest the decline of the water vole population - from recreating suitable habitats to captive breeding programs.
* XML stands for eXtensible Mark-up Language. This is fast becoming the data interchange standard for just about every sort of computer based system. It has the advantage of great flexibility combined with the fact that it is possible to make sense of the data without the aid of a dedicated program. Many programs like AditSite (and including your Internet browser) can read and display structured data stored using an XML format.
