Before the Field Work Begins
The first phase of nearly every environmental assessment should be a preliminary study to determine which animal and plant species are likely to be in an area, which are native and which are not, and which ones are listed under State or Commonwealth legislation.  To do this you need three things: Access to the most comprehensive flora and fauna databases.  Software for extracting and analysing information from those databases.  An ecologist who can interpret the results.  Contact us for further information on how we can help you with this process.

Viridans Experience
Viridans has for many years provided a quick and efficient desktop assessment service for land managers, land owners, environmental consultants, field naturalists and educational institutions; in fact anyone with an interest in knowing the botanical and zoological composition of an area.

Interactive Species List
All you do is provide us with details of the area you are interested in and we will generate the full list of species along with colour photographs, descriptive text, environmental information, national and Victorian conservation status, abundance in the area and date of the last record.  This information is burnt on to a CD-Rom along with the same software that Viridans uses for Wild Animals of Victoria and Wild Plants of Victoria. The package does not offer a mapping facility but it does provide everything else that the larger packages do, including filtering on specified characters, identification tools, export of lists to spreadsheets and word processors, and photograph and text printing.  

Analysis
In addition to the interactive species list Viridans will carry out an analysis of the data and compare it to state-wide standards and averages so that you may see at a glance: 
(i) Whether the area you have chosen has been adequately surveyed or if an ecological assessment is required
(ii) How the figures extracted from the FIS or VFD compare to what would be expected for similar sized areas elsewhere in the state
(iii) A conservation rating for the area, relative to state-wide standards
(iv) How the relative abundance of major flora or fauna groups compares to state-wide norms

All Terms Described
All technical terms in the lists, including conservation status codes, scientific nomenclature, plant and animal family names are fully explained and available as single mouse-click hyperlinks. There are also extensive notes on the interpretations that can be placed on the analysis.

Site-Specific Data  
The information contained within these products will include a local summary of data from the FIS or VFD but will not contain site-specific information suitable for incorporation into GIS packages. If you require such data we can supply it to you once you have entered into a data-sharing agreement with DSE (see information on FIS or VFD for contact details for data-sharing agreements).

Written Report  
The information contained within the search results and analysis is are or less self-explanatory. However, it is often useful to garner the opinions and interpretation of an experienced ecologist. Information not immediately obvious from the analysis may be important in the formulation of a way forward. For example, the analysis will not tell the client which species are near the edge of their environmental or geographic range, and thus might be locally significant. It will not give advice on the kind of on-ground, ecological assessment that may be necessary to provide a comprehensive picture of the study area. It will also not provide any guidance on the effects of any development or management initiatives that may be planned.

Finding the Search Area