The Green Toolbox - Documentation Overview
Topics
- Purpose of The Green Toolbox
- Intended Users
- Development, Management and User Support
- Design
- How to Use The Green Toolbox
- Monitoring
- Knowledge Management
- Obtaining Help
- Reports
- Enhancements - For Feedback
1. Purpose of The Green Toolbox
In future, North Island pastoral hill country farmland will become an increasingly diverse mosaic of land uses and vegetation types reflecting the needs of farmers, communities and ecosystems. As a practitioner helping to build this mosaic, you need access to the best information available, organized in a way that is easy for you to use.The Green Toolbox helps you select plant species, choose spacings and establishment methods, evaluate costs, and determine consequences for pasture production and land stability. Its plant database includes exotic trees, shrubs, grasses and legumes, and a wide range of native species used in restoration projects, so you can evaluate a wide range of vegetation options for your site, even ones that you may not have considered previously. You can also identify the land use options that you want to evaluate at farm and catchment scales. You can build an indexed set of local case studies. You can use this for monitoring and to help prepare recommendations. You can also use it to pool information from colleagues. You should expect The Green Toolbox to be up to date, including the results of the most recent research. Through feedback, you can influence research priorities to target gaps that are important to you.
2. Intended Users
The Green Toolbox is directed at land management advisers, agricultural and resource management consultants, landscape architects, farmers, restoration practitioners, and rural or urban community groups. Much of the system is applicable nationwide, but the emphasis in the erosion evaluation is on New Zealand's North Island erodible hill country.
3. Development, Management and User Support
The Green Toolbox project has been led by Landcare Research, and funded through a three year contract with the New Zealand Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, with the aim of encouraging wider evaluation of land management alternatives for hill country. Landcare Research has worked in partnership with AgResearch and HortResearch, and programming services have been provided by Eagle Technology Group Limited, Auckland.The software is maintained by Eagle Technology under contract to Landcare Research. Limited user support is available through Eagle and Landcare Research.
4. Design
The Green Toolbox consists of a set of seven modules which can be used independently or together in a systematic fashion. The modules are:
4.1 Case Module
This module provides database management for your consultations with The Green Toolbox. You can record and retrieve information, use it to compare options for a site, and create reports for use with other windows applications.
4.2 Land Resources Module
This module contains tools to help you learn more about the characteristics of your site. You can identify the soils and Land Use Capability units that best describe the site, and establish the Ecological Region and District. Future versions of The Green Toolbox will include direct or Web-based links to a GIS database to provide site data, and information on the landscape and catchment context of your site.
4.3 Species Module
Use this module to construct lists of species that meet your needs and those of the site. You can export a list as a report, or use it elsewhere within The Green Toolbox as a short list from which to choose plants for your site.
4.4 Finance Module
This module allows you to build a planting plan and activity schedule for your site. You can determine the costs, and add comments to your plan. You can save the Plan by transferring it to the Option Database. You may load a Plan from the Option database to modify it or investigate it in more detail. You can prepare reports for use in other Windows applications. You can also manage a database of costs which underpin the financial evaluation of your plan. You can also define your own plant cost groups, establishment methods, and establishment-maintenance activities, building on those that have been provided with The Green Toolbox.
4.5 Erosion Module
This module allows you to test a planting plan, species by species, for its impact on slope stability. It also allows you to manage a database of conditions (Guidelines, or Rules, for short) that experience has shown leads to successful erosion control and slope stabilisation.
4.6 Pasture Production Module
Use this module to determine the impact of planting trees and shrubs at various spacings on pasture production, based on a calculation of the amount of ground shading.
4.7 Database Management Module
Expert users can use this module to maintain the plant and other data on which The Green Toolbox's calculations, assessments and recommendations are based. Access is by password.
5. How to Use The Green Toolbox
5.1 Structured Use
To get most benefit from The Green Toolbox, use it in a structured manner. Used in this way you will help improve understanding of all the factors influencing vegetation management decisions, and reduce the chances of a crucial omission.
Start out with the Case module, create a page for your Farm, Site and Option in the database. Provide as much information as you can; you can save replicating this information n other modules later. First supply data on the Farm, then the Site. Create the Option page, and give it a name, but don't add anything to it just yet.
Explore the characteristics of your site using the Land Resources module. Determine the Land Use Capability classification if you didn't already know it, identify your soil, and establish the Ecological Region that you are in. Paste this information directly back into the Site page.
Now enter the Species module. Different component modules are provided for exotic species, native species, and forage species, because the selection processes differ. Create a short list of species from each module, as appropriate for your problem. The Green Toolbox will hold that list, even between sessions, until you replace it with another. Maybe these lists will be your most commonly used species.
Move to the Finance module. This is where you create and modify Options before copying them to the database for comparing them with others. Be sure you have set up the Cost information in the Cost Setup module within the Finance Module: it is up to you to ensure that you have a set of costs that are appropriate for your local district, nurseries, and contract rates. When you are sure of this, move to the Finance Planner and choose the species that you are thinking of planting at the site. Load these into the Planner and supply the proposed planting dates (years). At this point you can do one of two things. You can copy the planting plan and tentative cost estimates to the Option page, and move on to explore how the plants will handle the stability conditions at your site, and their effect on pasture production. Alternatively you can work through all the costs and activities now, and check to see if the plan is financially viable for you. At any time, when changing these schedules and costs, you can update the data in the Option page.
With a plan in place, move to the Erosion module to check whether your plan is compatible with site erosion conditions, and whether stabilisation will be achieved if the site is erodible or currently eroding. the tools in the Erosion module are oriented to the major erosion forms in hill country - mass movement and gully erosion forms. You can check the plan species by species. If the species plan is inappropriate for the stability conditions, you will need to change it within the Finance Planner, and update the Option page, before proceeding. This can mean changing the species, spacing, or establishment method. Record the results of your erosion assessment in the Evaluation page in the Option module. You may need to come back and change this if you change the species. Alternatively you can complete the Evaluation page when you are sure of your species, spacings, and methods.
Now you have a planting plan that is suited to the site, you can move to the Pasture module to determine its effect on pasture production. You can alter tree spacing or species at this point to manage the impacts on pasture production. Be sure to check that this does not compromise erosion risk. Make sure data in your Planner and Option Page is kept up to date with the changes.
Next, when you have a set of species, spacings and establishment methods that are appropriate, go back to the Finance Planner and check over the details of pruning, thinning, weed and pest control, etc, to ensure that you have considered all the major cost factors. When you've done this, update the Option page, and then move to complete the Evaluation page. This is where you provide information that can be used to compare different options for your site. The Green Toolbox provides helps you most with criteria relating to erosion, costs and production. For others you may wish to consult other sources, or simply acknowledge the uncertainty. Future versions of The Green Toolbox may help with these additional criteria.
Repeat the process of generating a financially viable option for your site for as many different types of options that you want to explore. Then move to Cases Review and compare these options directly in terms of the evaluation criteria provided. Mark the preferred option as "Preferred" in the Option database.
5.2 Unstructured Use
When you have gained experience with The Green Toolbox, you may wish to use it in for specific tasks as appropriate for particular clients and questions. Maybe the question is about species tolerances and suitabilities, maybe it is about slope stability, or pasture impacts, or just costs. Maybe you just want to find out what Land Use Capability unit that you're working on. The Green Toolbox's modular structure allows you to answer these questions quickly without forcing you through the structured approach of a full consultation. Unstructured use may be most useful when you have a client with you, whereas structured use may be more appropriate when you're back in the office preparing the report.For unstructured use, you may enter The Green Toolbox directly through any of the component modules. If you find yourself supplying site data several times, perhaps it is time you created formal Farm and Site pages in the Case database.
6. Monitoring
Local experience is extremely valuable in any resource management decisions. You will need to organise this information to get most benefit from it. Your case database should include not only the recommendations and costs and other evaluation criteria, but also data on growth performance, slope stabilisation, and other factors. All of this information can be recorded in The Green Toolbox's Monitoring page in the Case / Option database. There you can record all data gathered at a particular date, for future reference. These records may be for sites which have been planted as a result of your own consultations, or they may be other sites, perhaps older ones, where you have not been involved. Either way, they provide opportunity for learning. When you have a significant body of cases, then two options become available to you. You can extend the body of stabilisation guideline rules in the Erosion module, or you can create new options simply by copying and modifying existing ones, considering the differences between the respective sites.
7. Knowledge Management
7.1 Database
If you have been licensed as an expert user, you may access and modify plant species data within the Database Management module. As knowledge of plant tolerances, suitabilities, distributions, and morphological characteristics grows, The Green Toolboxs databases can be updated. You can export data to files, send them to other experts for comment and improvement, then modify the data in the database accordingly.
7.2 Knowledge-based Rules
The Green Toolbox includes knowledge-based rules or guidelines for successful slope stabilisation. Accessed via the Erosion / Stability Setup module, these rules are simply combinations of site, plant and management factors which have been found to be successful. Ongoing discussion about these rules will lead you to modify them. These rules are consulted as part of the erosion assessment for any site plan. Any user can maintain the stability rules, expanding on those supplied with the start-up package.7.3 Financial Module
Within the Financial / Cost Setup module you can maintain information on recommended establishment and management regimes, and associated costs, for the plants in The Green Toolbox's database. You will need to ensure that this information is current and appropriate for your district. Investing time in setting up this module well will set you up for rapid analyses when working with clients.
8. Obtaining Help
The Green Toolbox's Help system is context-sensitive. Where you last clicked the mouse defines the current "context". Pressing F1 or clicking the [?] button on the Toolbar will take you to the appropriate part of the Help documentation, provided you have Internet Explorer Version 5. (Earlier versions may take you to the top of the appropriate document). Each Help document includes a Topics list to help you locate other relevant topics. You can also use the Search feature of Green Books Online.
9. Reports
You can generate a range of reports from The Green Toolbox, by clicking on the Printer icon in the Toolbar. These reports can be printed directly, to a file or displayed in a window prior to printing, or exporting to a spreadsheet or wordprocessor format. Clicking the printer icon often gives you a choice of reports. Choose one of these and click Print to create the report. You can generate reports at different levels of detail for individual cases / Options (Cases Review), species lists (Species modules), establishment and management data (Finance / Cost Setup module), cost data (Finance / Cost Setup), and species data (Database Module)..
9.1 Report Destination
After you choose the Report type and click Print, you can specify the Report Destination - Printer, Window, File. Printing to Window is the most versatile. From there you can export the report to wordprocessor or spreadsheet format files, print directly to the printer, or perform cut and paste operations to extract the pieces from the report that you need in another Windows document. Notice that the Reports are all tab-formatted, so that they can easily form the basis of tables in wordprocessor documents.
9.2 Exporting Reports to WordProcessors and Spreadsheets
Having selected your report type, choose Window as your Report Destination. This will display the report, one page at a time. Click the Envelope (Export) icon to create a WordProcessor or Spreadsheet format file. In the subsequent window, choose an appropriate format from the list, and then confirm or provide a new file name and directory.
10. Enhancements - For Feedback
There are a number of areas where The Green Toolbox can be improved. The areas that are most important are those which will ensure the package becomes routinely used. Then there are the areas which will help you to consider sustainability issues more throughly. You can contact the software managers to give feedback on where or how you believe the package can be improved. Below are some of the areas that you might like to think about.User Interface
Should there be more integration between modules? Is it simple enough to evaluate options for a range of impacts? Are the supporting notes complete enough? Should the documentation package extend to include relevant hotlinked Websites? Should the package be delivered, in whole or in part, over the Web?
Case Database
Should the Case Database be linked to property databases? If so, which databases? Should the farm database include farm maps? Should it be possible to mark the map with site locations, and should these marks be linked directly to sites within the Case Database?
Land Resources Module
Do you have difficulty supplying site data? Should The Green Toolbox include more tools to help you evaluate site characteristics, for example to learn more about the soil? Should you be able to link directly to maps to extract the best available site data from spatial data held on your PC, or from a remote geographic information system, through the Web?Species Module
Are there plant species attributes which could be handled better, for example in terms of altered definitions. Should there be pictures of the plant species to assist selection? Are there other attributes that should be considered? Do you think more effort should be put into more reliable or less conservative estimates of plant tolerances and suitabilities? Do you need more information on the reliability of the expert-derived information?Finance Module
Do you need an improved starter kit, or do you prefer to create this yourself? Do you need improved tools for evaluating options? Should we be include evaluations of quantities like carbon storage? What additional evaluation modules do you need? What additional graphical tools would assist financial evaluation? What farm-level reporting is appropriate, such as summing costs across sites and years?