Program: Index of Surveys for Assessments

Refer to the ISA guidance on Environment Online for procedures, user guides and other resources to assist with submitting data packages. 

Am I required to submit data to ISA?

If you are submitting a biodiversity or marine survey report to DWER, the EPA or DMPE to support an assessment, post-assessment or compliance process under the EP Act, it will need to be accompanied by an ISA data package that has been prepared according to the Procedure: Preparing data packages for the Index of Surveys for Assessment (ISA). The procedure can be viewed on the Environment Online ISA guidance page. 

What type of survey data is captured by ISA?

ISA captures all biodiversity and marine survey data generated to support assessment processes or meet post-assessment requirements under the EP Act for the EPA’s Sea, Water and Land factors.

Does my post-assessment, ongoing monitoring or compliance process require an ISA data package to be submitted?

If there is a requirement for a biodiversity or marine survey report to be submitted to DWER, the EPA or DMPE for assessment, post-assessment or compliance purposes, it must be accompanied by an ISA data package.

If a biodiversity survey report was supplied to support approvals under the EP Act to demonstrate compliance with conditions of approval, such as Compliance Assessment Reports and Annual Environmental Reports, it needs to be accompanied by an ISA data package.

If conditions of approval require a post-assessment biodiversity survey or ongoing biodiversity monitoring, and submission of the resulting biodiversity survey reports to DWER, the EPA or DMPE, then ISA data packages must accompany these biodiversity survey reports. In cases where submission of such reports is not a requirement of approval conditions, the submission of ISA data packages is encouraged but is not mandatory.

Should I submit data associated with desktop studies to ISA?

No. ISA data packages are only required for field surveys that have generated new data. Studies based entirely on previously existing observations, for example desktop studies or consolidated reports, do not require ISA data packages.

If a study is based on a mix of existing and new data, for example a basic survey that comprises a desktop study and a site visit, an ISA data package should be supplied. This package should include the biodiversity survey report and the data obtained during the site visit, but not the existing data from the desktop component.

However, for marine surveys, data that is used to support models or other projections that are referenced can be provided.

I have a biodiversity survey report, but it is not related to an EP Act assessment or compliance process. Can I submit this to ISA?

It is outside of ISA’s scope to publish reports and datasets from surveys that were not conducted to support DWER, EPA and DMPE assessment and compliance processes under the EP Act. If you have a significant quantity of such information, please contact ibsa@dwer.wa.gov.au to discuss what options may exist.

Is all biodiversity and marine survey information provided for assessment automatically made public in ISA (IBSA/IMSA portals)?

The intellectual property owner decides at submission whether the ISA data package submitted will be made public and granted for third-party use. However, this information may still be made public for the purposes of an assessment or public consultation via DWER, DMPE or EPA websites under the EP Act. For more information, refer to the ISA Procedure and Data Licence Statement and Environment Online Terms of Use.

Records of species and communities contained in ISA data packages may also be shared with the Department of Biodiversity Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) under the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016, but public availability is subject to Dandjoo’s terms and conditions.

At what point during the ISA process are data packages made publicly available in the IBSA or IMSA portal? Can I amend a data package once it has been submitted?

Once the relevant agency has made and published its final decision or recommendation on the assessment, review or compliance process, ISA will make the relevant data packages publicly available, depending on the Data Licence Statement granted on submission. Until then, the data packages remain in an internal data environment for the purposes of an assessment or application. During the assessment or compliance process, the submitter can provide corrected or updated data packages if requested or there is a need to do so via the Environment Online portal.

Can I change my mind about making my data publicly available, or change the type of licence that I have granted, once my data has been uploaded to the IBSA or IMSA portal?

No. For technical reasons, the department is unable to amend metadata and licensing statements or process requests to change the public availability of data packages once they have been finalised and uploaded to the IBSA or IMSA portal.

Will changes to taxonomic names or conservation statuses be updated in ISA?

No. ISA is not a relational database. If species names or other attributes change during an assessment or compliance process, the ISA data should be updated via the EO Portal or if a revised biodiversity survey report is submitted, a similarly revised ISA data package should also be submitted. Species names and status of ISA Records may be updated in the Department of Biodiversity Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) Dandjoo Portal, where available.

How do I submit my reports and data to IBSA?

Clients do not upload data directly to ISA. ISA data packages must be submitted via Environment Online. ISA data packages should be submitted in accordance with the Procedure: Preparing data packages for the Index of Surveys for Assessment (ISA), which can be viewed on the Environment Online ISA guidance page.

If I am submitting an ISA data package, do I still have to submit data, such as significant species observations, to the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA)?

Yes. Currently, ISA data packages do not automatically feed into DBCA processes. Any requirements for the supply of survey reports and data to DBCA, for example where the conditions of a collecting licence require DBCA to be informed of significant species observations, still apply and must be adhered to regardless of whether or not an ISA data package has been submitted.

Am I permitted to submit information on threatened, priority and other significant species to ISA?

Yes. The goal of ISA is to publicly share biodiversity and marine survey data collected to support environmental assessments, which may include significant species location information. However, records of locations of significant species may be withheld from being made publicly available on advice from DBCA.

ISA data packages should include all species records, including those for significant species and introduced species.

Is ISA part of the Shared Location Information Platform (SLIP) or data.wa.gov.au?

No. SLIP and data.wa.gov.au contain curated, general-purpose datasets. Reports and datasets in ISA are not curated or consolidated. Individual ISA data packages can be accessed via the IBSA portal and IMSA portal, depending on the publication and third-party data use licence granted on submission.

Will all government agencies have unrestricted access to the data packages I supply for ISA?

Data submitted via ISA is done so in accordance with the State of Western Australian Government’s Open Data Policy.

However, currently non-public ISA data packages will only be available to the State Government of Western Australia agencies listed in the ISA Data Licence Agreement for the purposes of their respective Acts and Regulations. Requests for access to ISA data packages from other State Government agencies will be determined on a case-by-case basis depending on the purposes of the request, their acts, and the ISA Data Licence Statement issued.

Data packages that have been licensed to be made publicly available or for third-party use including all survey metadata, will be accessible to anybody – including government agencies. Therefore, government agencies will have the same level of access to information, the same options for acquiring datasets based on metadata and licencing granted, and the same conditions for using information that other ISA users have. 

How do I access ISA data packages (e.g. biodiversity and marine survey reports and associated data)?

Go to the IBSA or IMSA portals. Browse the surveys or use the filters on the left, including the geographic filter, to find the surveys you are looking for. Note that the individual surveys displayed in the map, list and tile views, to the right of the filter panel, will be constrained by the number you have set to display per page (20, 50, 100 or 500).

Click on a survey title to go to the page for that survey. There you can view basic details of the survey under the ‘About’ tab, and see the metadata and licensing summary and any available reports and data files under the ‘Resources’ tab. Survey reports and data files will only be present if the intellectual property owner has licensed them for publication via the metadata and licensing statement.

How do I log in to the IBSA or IMSA portals? Are there fees for using it?

You do not need to log in to the IBSA or IMSA portals. Although there is a ‘Login’ button in the bottom banner, this is only for site administrators. IBSA and IMSA users can access all functionality without requiring an account or paying any access fees.

How do I search and filter the data packages?

The search box at the top right of the ‘Surveys’ page offers limited keyword searching. It searches only within metadata, i.e. titles, authors and the information under ‘Survey details’ and ‘Citation’ under the ‘About’ tab. Full text searching within reports and datasets is not supported. The search box is most useful when searching for a specific data package; refer to the question ‘How do I search by ‘IBSA/IMSA number’ for a specific data package?’, below.

The filter pane on the left-hand side of the ‘Surveys’ page offers limited filtering of results by ‘Receiving agency’, ‘Assessment type’ and ‘Author’. Only one filter may be applied per category. Click on ‘Refine’ to apply your selected options. Once a filter has been applied, the search box may also be used to conduct a keyword search within the filter results.

The ‘Geographic filter’ option is the most powerful and intuitive way of browsing IBSA data packages. Click ‘Filter by geographic region’ in the filter pane, apply a filter area using the popup box and click ‘Next’. In the popup box you can:

• orient yourself by making the map full screen, toggling different base layers and overlays, searching for a specific location and zooming in and out
• apply a custom filter area by drawing a square, circle or freeform polygon
• apply a predefined filter area using the ‘Select a known shape’ button – options include bioregions and subregions, local government areas, Ramsar wetland regions and NRM regions.

How do I search by IBSA or IMSA number for a specific data package?

Each ISA data package is assigned a unique IBSA, IMSA or ISA number in the format ‘IBSA-YYYY-NNNN’. If you know the number for a data package you want to find, enter this number within double quotation marks in the search box at the top right of the ‘Surveys’ page. For example, if you wanted to find IBSA-2019-1234 you would enter “IBSA-2019-1234”. This data package will then be the first entry on the page of search results (this will not be apparent in map view – switch to tile or list view if necessary).

If you cannot find the data package you are looking for, remember that it might not yet have been published online; refer to the question ‘At what point during the ISA process are data packages made publicly available?’ in the 'FAQs – ISA requirements' section, above.

How should I navigate search and filter results?

If you perform a keyword search or apply a text filter, display your search results in tile or list view and navigate to an individual survey page, you will see a ‘Back to search results’ button on that survey page. Use this to return to the results of your search or filter.

If you perform a keyword search or apply a text filter, display your search results in map view and navigate to an individual survey page, you will not see a ‘Back to search results’ button on that survey page. Instead, use your browser’s ‘back’ button to return to the results of your search or filter.

If you apply a geographic filter and navigate to an individual survey page, do not use the ‘Back to search results’ button or your browser’s ‘back’ button. If you do, your filter results will be lost. Instead, open individual survey pages in new browser tabs, preserving your filter results in the original tab.

From any page, select ‘Surveys’ in the top banner to cancel all keyword searches and filters and return to the complete list of data packages.

How do I know whether I have permission to use reports and data I have found in the IBSA or IMSA portals?

Review Sections 3 and 4 of the metadata and licensing summary, under the ‘Resources’ tab for the relevant survey, by downloading it or using the online document preview feature. These sections show what type of licensing has been allowed by the intellectual property owner; users of IBSA or IMSA must adhere to the terms of these licences, as well as the general terms detailed in the IBSA or IMSA disclaimer. If you download survey reports or data files from IBSA or IMSA, you should also download the relevant metadata and licensing summary and retain it alongside the downloaded information.

Is the ‘Survey Area’, shown under the ‘About’ tab for a survey, exact?

No. This Survey Area boundary is approximate and is simply intended to facilitate geographic searching in the IBSA and IMSA portals and give a general overview of the area covered by a biodiversity survey report. If it is important that you know the exact boundaries of a survey, you should examine the survey details spatial dataset provided under the ‘Resources’ tab (if available).

I can't see the ‘Survey Area’ under the ‘About’ tab. What should I do?

The map viewer built into the 'About' tab for surveys on the IBSA and IMSA portals can sometimes behave unexpectedly. There is a known issue with the default display of the Survey Area map, particularly when the page length is less than the screen height. It will correct itself when you scroll down, but short pages may not be able to scroll down and therefore can’t auto-correct. If the map viewer is not showing survey boundaries correctly, please try:

• updating your browser (note that the IBSA and IMSA portals are optimised for Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome – they will also work on other browsers, but we recommend Firefox or Chrome)
• removing or disabling browser extensions such as ad blockers
• resetting the size of the browser window (e.g. by maximising then restoring it)
• toggling different base layers in the map viewer (e.g. switch from the 'Road Map' base layer to the 'Satellite' base layer).