Drive the parcels that were flagged, not the whole district.
One satellite pass a year over your catchment, laid against the licence register. You get a map layer of storages and pumping structures that have no application behind them, and a visit list that starts there.
Schematic, not a delivered map.
- GSD
- High / 0.5–2 m
- Cadence
- Annual
- Platform
- High-resolution satellite
- Spectral
- RGB
The audit list before the water year turns
The register tells you who is licensed. It can't tell you what was dug last winter on a property with no application. So the visit list is built from what the office already knows: complaints from neighbours, parcels with a history, a dam an inspector happened to spot on the way to somewhere else.
The district is too large to cover on the road, and a storage with no licence behind it leaves no paper to find. It comes to light when someone rings, or it doesn't.
The same audit, built two ways
| Step | Driving the district | With Farm Dam Detection |
|---|---|---|
| L1Building the visit list | The register, last year's files, complaints that came in and whatever an inspector remembers from the road. | The register plus a map layer of candidate structures from this year's pass, sorted by property. |
| L2Finding a storage with no application | It turns up when a neighbour rings or an inspector drives past. A structure nobody mentions can go unnoticed. | If the pass can see it from above, it goes on the layer whether or not anyone complained. |
| Still yours Whether it needed a licence. The register decides that. | ||
| L3Seeing whether a known dam has grown | A site visit, or a comparison of an old photo against what the inspector sees at the gate. | A flag when a structure is larger than it was on the previous pass, with the two dates stated. |
| L4Covering the far side of the catchment | Properties a long way from the office wait their turn in the diary. | Candidates are ranked across the whole catchment in one summary, so the far properties are weighed against the near ones. |
| L5Writing the file note | Notes and photos taken at the visit, after the visit. | An image chip of the structure from the pass is attached to the property before the inspector leaves the office. |
| Still yours The visit itself, the measurements and the notice that follows. The chip is a starting point for the file, never evidence of a breach. | ||
| L6Clearing candidates against the register | Not a step. The officer only checks the register for properties they already suspect. | Your team clears each candidate against the register. Those that don't match become the visit list. |
| Still yours Every decision about what is licensed and what to do next. | ||
What lands after the annual pass
A set of files per pass, for your GIS.
- F1
Candidate structure layer
GeoJSON, shapefileEvery storage and pumping structure the pass flagged, as polygons or points over your catchment. It loads beside your cadastre and your licence register's take points. This replaces the building of the list by memory and complaint.
Ledger L1: Building the visit list - F2
Change flag
Attribute on the layerMarks a structure that is larger than on the previous pass. From the second year of a catchment onwards it speaks to the "has this dam grown" question without a visit.
Ledger L3: Seeing whether a known dam has grown - F3
Image chip per structure
ImageA small crop of the pass over each candidate, for the property file. It shows what the pass saw and on what date.
Ledger L5: Writing the file note - F4
District summary
Summary tableCandidates counted by property, sub-catchment or whatever area you divide the district by, so the diary can start with the densest ground.
Ledger L4: Covering the far side of the catchment
Across the audit year
You send the catchment once. The layer comes back after the annual pass.
- Before the pass
Send the catchment
A boundary file or a list of parcels for the district. Tell us which register export and which GIS you work in.
- Once a year
Annual imagery
We use the latest usable 0.5–2 m RGB pass over the catchment. We tell you which date it came from.
- After the pass
Structures found and matched
Storages and pumping structures are picked out of the imagery and set against the register extract you supplied. The layer marks structures with no matching licence record as candidates.
- Delivery
Layer delivered
The candidate layer, change flags, image chips and the district summary, ready to load into your GIS.
- Your audit
You clear and visit
Your officers clear candidates against the register. What is left is the list you drive.
What driving the district still does better
Read these before you build a diary around the layer.
Once a year
A structure built and partly hidden between passes can be missed until the next year. This is an annual audit tool. It won't tell you a pump started last week.
Cloud can move the pass
The imagery is optical. If cloud sits over part of the catchment, a usable pass may land later in the year, and a missed year rolls into the next.
Surface only
Optical RGB sees what is on the surface. A bore with nothing above ground, a buried pipe, a meter and underground works do not appear.
Small and thin things
At 2 m a pixel is 2 m across. A dam a few pixels wide can be detected but little can be said about it, and a header pipe to a river frontage is narrower than a pixel. We look for the pump shed, the cleared track and the scar on the bank, which is more of the story at the finer end of the range.
It finds structures, not breaches
The layer cannot say whether a dam is licensed, exempt or over its limit. Your register decides that, and an inspector confirms it on the ground.
Who it's for
Switch if
- You run the annual entitlement audit for a regulator and build the visit diary from a licence register and a GIS.
- Your district is too big to drive and you want the diary to start where structures turned up.
Stay with the district drive if
- You need real-time or monthly monitoring of take. The pass is annual.
- You want a tool that decides who is in breach or produces a notice.
- You are looking for bores, pipework or metering data. Those do not show from above.
Before you switch
Q1Does this replace a site inspection?
No. It chooses which properties to visit. The inspector, the measurements and the notice all stay with you.
Q2Can it tell a licensed dam from an unlicensed one?
No. It finds structures. Your register tells you which are licensed.
Q3How do we check it against what we know?
Take parcels where you already know the dams and see whether the layer shows them. If it misses one, send it back and we'll go through that pass's imagery with you.
Q4What if it's cloudy that year?
A usable clear pass is needed. When cloud gets in the way, the pass can land later, and a missed year rolls into the next.
Q5Does it see bores or underground works?
No. Optical imagery sees only the surface.
Q6How often is it refreshed?
Once a year, to fit an annual entitlement audit.
Q7Which formats do we get, and does it plug into our register system?
GeoJSON and shapefile for your GIS. There is no direct integration with a licensing or register system, so the matching runs against an extract you supply.
Q8Who owns the layer, and can we share it?
Your catchment boundary and register extract stay yours. What you may do with the layer, and the licence on the imagery behind it, is written into the pilot agreement before the pass runs.
Q9How is it priced?
It depends on the size of the catchment, so we quote after we have seen it. There is no price list on this page.
Run it over one district first.
Send a boundary and the register extract you work from. We'll scope a pilot pass from there.