GroNative
The data
The Queensland Government, through the Open Data portal, provides access to the following data used in the development of the GroNATIVE app:
- Biogeographic regions - Queensland: Queensland has been divided into 13 bioregions that represent broad landscape patterns based on the interplay between factors including geology, climate and biota.
- Pre-clearing Broad Vegetation Groups of Queensland: this data is derived from the regional ecosystem mapping.
The user
GroNATIVE is a joint initiative between the Queensland Government (Advance Queensland Knowledge Transfer Partnerships program funding), Natura Pacific (content development and photography) and Griffith University (product design, development and implementation).
Natura Pacific is a social enterprise based on the Gold Coast who work with businesses, institutions, governments and non-governmental organisations nationally and internationally to provide:
- environmentally sustainable development solutions
- nature-based education services.
As part of this work, the education team deliver novel products to the community that help them to reintegrate with nature allowing the company to do charity by doing trade, being almost entirely self-funded.
The GroNATIVE app uses the data to accurately map the:
- boundary of the South East Queensland bioregion and locate the spatial data that the app uses, such as postcode layers, suburb layers and broad vegetation groups layers, within it
- locations of the 40+ broad vegetation groups within South East Queensland and overlay with the postcodes and suburbs to produce a list of plants that are native within each postcode/suburb's boundary. The Queensland Herbarium and the NSW PlantNet manually determined the relationship as to which of the 400 species in the app occur in which broad vegetation group and recorded this in Excel.
The benefits
The GroNATIVE app is Australia's first geolocating native gardening app. The community benefits from this geolocating function by being able to very easily generate tailor-made local lists of species that:
- look great in their garden according to soil type and local micro-climate
- provide a welcoming habitat to attract certain types of native wildlife (it provides the option to choose ‘wildlife’ by type, such as specific birds, bees, frogs, lizards, mammals and even mistletoe-hosts)
- promote the use of native plant species in gardens and urban landscapes and show people how species can easily replace garden plants that often become weeds
- allow users to select distinct gardening styles and looks and how to match this using native planting palettes
- increase recognition, appreciation and conservation of plant species in decline in the wild.
GroNATIVE will also:
- have environmental and ecological benefits by helping to reduce water usage through better plant selection and reduced chances of weeds spreading
- reduce impacts on the ecosystem, maintain environmental health and even allow gardens and urban landscapes to function as significant 'green corridors' that help retain local biodiversity
- keep places looking beautiful in times of adversity through the use of native-dominant gardens – a sustainable initiative which accepts the challenge of ‘doing more with less’.
Watch the video
Download the app
Download the app from Google Play or the Apple Store
and discover other vegetation data to download from the portal.