Biosecurity Risk Area Tool for Northern Australia

Surveillance effort in the Northern Australia Biosecurity Risk Area is directed based on static information about biogeographic factors, human population, hosts, and pathways, supplemented by expert judgement regarding previous years’ detections, intelligence gathered through surveillance, likelihood of windborne dispersal, and changes to pathways, hosts, and human population.

The challenge faced by the Northern Australian Quarantine Strategy (NAQs) is that the current framework for identifying risk areas is not readily updatable as new data or information becomes available. This has resulted in the animal and plant risk areas and ratings exhibiting few changes or updates over the last decade, leading to inefficiencies in where we do surveillance across northern Australia.

To mitigate against these inefficiencies, this project will help NAQs to develop a software tool for the delineation of geographic risk areas, prioritisation of surveillance and allocation of resources.

Deliverables:
1. A data analytic model capable of readily updating risk areas/maps as new data from multiple sources become available (e.g. pest movements in neighbouring countries, detections, human populations, hosts, tourist visitation, IFFV landings, wind and sea currents)

2. Software tool/app: A user-friendly implementation of the data analytic model (Item no. 1) for non-specialists, and well supported with training resources. The tool should be accessible to Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (Cth) personnel and provide secure access and storage for sensitive datasets.

3. A final project report.