The database (Assets Project) is the first of three projects in the Department's computer based BioWeb Programme. The second project is the Monitoring Project that will contain the Departmental monitoring protocols, monitoring data collected according to Department approved methods and protocols and the data analysis. The third project is the Conservation Management Project that addresses operational assessment and reporting.

A common template is being used for all sub-applications in the Asset Project. Observations are made for species (for species based sub-applications such as threatened plants) and for sites (for place based applications such as archaeological sites). Each sub-application has additional fields designed to address the special needs of that sub-application, (e.g. threat status for threatened plants) and to record biological attribute data that is relevant to different types organisms.

The BioWeb Assets Project currently contains the following sub applications or sub projects:

• Weeds (separate metadata entry)
• Threatened Plants (separate metadata entry)
• Casual observation input for any organism or place

• Archaeological sites
• Birds-currently the blue duck component is operational and the bird banding data is soon to be operational.
• Herpetofauna
• Invertebrates

• Fish/aquatic life (scope to be determined)
• Mammals (scope to be determined)
• Wetlands

Pestlink addresses animal pest management in the Department. It is in the early stages of development as part of the Conservation Management Project. At this stage it is primarily for operational reporting of the Department's animal pest management.

A link has been made to the old Biosite database. This allows users to access the data held in this database for bats, falcon, amphibians, kaka, wren, blue ducks, reptiles, some fish, kea, plants, invertebrates, and other bird species. It is intended that over time this data will be transferred to BioWeb.

• species attributes (including taxonomic classification,
• alternative names and species that it could be confused with); observations (attributes relating to the type of observation and any specimens/maps/photos etc);
• place (including position and site attribute data)

The database as a whole contains a variety parameters specifically tailored to each sub-application (See separate metadata entries for BioWeb-Weeds and BioWeb-Threatened Plants)

• Directly uses the New Zealand Plant Names Database
• Incorporates data from the Landcare Research Threatened Plants Database
• Links directly to the old Biosite database. This allows users to access the data held in this database for bats, falcon, amphibians, kaka, wren, blue ducks, reptiles, some fish, kea, plants, invertebrates, and other bird species. It is intended that over time this data will be transferred to BioWeb

• The database provides a common system for storing all the Department's data on natural and historic heritage.
• This will make all data available (with some exclusions for sensitive data) to staff and approved users. This will provide better information for managers and decision makers.
• It will remove the need for many of the small databases previously operated in the Department by individuals/offices for their own needs.
• The database is intended to be user friendly and able to provide ad hoc reports using data from within a sub-application to answer a variety of question.
• A nationally standardised database means that it can be used for national reporting purposes.

• The database is still in the early stages of development and so has not yet been fully established for a number of topic areas.
• There is a difficult transition phase with old data not being readily available although it is intended that the data will be transferred to the new system over time. A link has been made to Biosite.
• Not yet able to do time comparisons of data using GIS, but this is proposed.
• Location algorithms are not yet available for the Chatham Islands and offshore islands.