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UNDO Tool philosophy

The urban development industry and state and local governments have recognised the need for the tool to have the following capabilities:

  • Evaluate the nutrient impacts of an urban development in a consistent manner supported by local, national and international literature.
  • Allow land development proponents to enter data about their development and to assess its nutrient impacts in a logical and easy-to-use system.
  • Allow land development proponents to make decisions about various management practices that would reduce the nutrient impacts of the development (and adhere to the targets established for the development area).
  • Report and summarise the development design, the proposed nutrient management practices and the nutrient exports clearly and concisely.
  • Allow assessment by state and local governments to streamline the approval process in a consistent and logical manner.

Based on the priorities of the urban development industry, state and local governments, the UNDO tool was designed specifically to adhere to four basic requirements:

  1. Scientific rigour: The UNDO tool explicitly considers Western Australia’s nutrient export processes and pathways. Nutrient input rates, export algorithms and structural BMP efficacy is based on the best available science and local data. The science used to develop the UNDO tool is transparent, concisely documented, and easily accessible from the tool’s interface.

  2. Ease of access and use: All aspects of the design of the UNDO tool have usability as a topmost priority. The tool is web-based, so users can easily access the tool with a web connection. The tool has been constructed using latest software code and development tools, so that it has a modern and intuitive ‘feel’ to the interface. Users require minimal training, and all help and documentation is easy to access from the main interface.

  3. Ease of review and assessment:The UNDO tool was developed with assessment by decision-making authorities in mind. Hence, the tool has automatic reporting capabilities, and can save project files. The simple-to-follow format of the reports means that decision-making authority officers can easily understand the BMPs that the proponent will use, and can assess the development’s nutrient exports against any guidelines or targets.

  4. Reversion/update capability: It is recognised that the science surrounding the flux and fate of urban nutrients is constantly evolving, and there is limited local Western Australian data on the efficacy of many of the structural BMPs available in the UNDO tool. So, it is essential that the UNDO tool is developed in such a way that updates are easily implemented when new data becomes available. Version control process and documentation are also provided to streamline the update process.