APPD – Australian Plant Pest Database

Summary
Type of tool	Database of plant pests
Function	Pest identification
Online / Desktop	Online
Computer infrastructure	Browser
Development status	Stable and progressive
Time of use	At time of user request
Licence	Restricted

The Australian Plant Pest Database (APPD) is a nationally coordinated database of plant pests and diseases.1

 

Description

The Australian Plant Pest Database (APPD) provides a single point of access to existing electronic records of voucher specimens contained in databases across Australia. The system provides critical support to decision making during emergency management of incursions by exotic species. It also provides a powerful tool to assist bids for market access and to justify measures to exclude potentially harmful, exotic organisms.2

 

APPD query form.3

 

The APPD query form contains three sections: 4

• data sources to query
• pest and host details
• further query refinements (pest location and date specimen collected)

 

The pest scientific or common name may be used. The host scientific, common name or substrate (for non-living hosts) may be used. Scientific names may include any combinations of one or more taxonomic levels of order/family/genus/species/infraspecific taxa.5

The results can be constrained spatially by:

• Collection coordinates
• Location details of State and town
• Year of specimen collection

 

Results are presented on a scaleable map, and as a dataset.

 

Because pest information may have an impact on market access and trade, access to the APPD is restricted. Generally, only plant health or quarantine specialists and collection curators from contributing agencies have access to the database.6

 

APPD system architecture.7

 

The APPD was launched in April 2002 and provides access to 14 pest collections (through 12 agencies), totalling in excess of 1 million records. This project has received funding from an Australian Government Budget Initiative administered by the Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry.8

 

Function

• Taxonomy
  • Identification tools
• User interface
  • Personal
  • Raw data and visual presentation

 

Why use this tool?

• What is the purpose of the tool?
• Are there alternatives?

 

Who will use this tool?

• Data users
  • Expert
• Semi-skilled operation

 

How will the tool be used?

• Online access to this database
• User input required

 

Where in the data chain could this tool be used?

• User’s machine

 

When could this tool be used?

• At the time of a user request

 

Availability

• APPD: http://www.planthealthaustralia.com.au/APPD/
• Plant Health Australia: http://www.planthealthaustralia.com.au/site/index.asp
• Help: http://www.planthealthaustralia.com.au/APPD/help/index.asp
• Restrictions: Access only available to selected specialists

 

Comments

• Allows both common names and scientific names.

 

See paper discussing APPD architecture:

Ian Naumann, Emma Lumb, Kerry Taylor, Robert Power, David Ratcliffe, and Michael Kearney (2006). The Australian Plant Pest Database: a national resource for an expert community. In Andrew Treloar, editor, Proceedings of The Twelfth Australasian World Wide Web Conference, (AusWeb06), Noosa, Australia, 30th June to 4th July 2006.  http://ausweb.scu.edu.au/aw06/index.html

 

For international commercial reasons this database has highly restricted access. It is included here as an example of a pest database; how the ALA could service this community by contributing tools and datasets; and how this community may be able to allow some form of restricted access to the ALA.

 

 

---