We need your wildlife sightings to better understand where our native plants and animals are now and how this changes over time. And this couldn’t be simpler. VBA Go is a mobile recording tool for the Victorian Biodiversity Atlas.
What is VBA Go?
Dec 2023: VBA Go is currently offline
VBA Go is a mobile tool that links directly to the Victorian Biodiversity Atlas, making it easier for environmental managers, researchers, students and all community members to share records of Victoria’s native species while out and about.
All your data feeds into the VBA and is used to inform the Protecting Victoria’s Environment – Biodiversity 2037 Plan’s new decision support tools, which use a landscape approach to integrate biodiversity information. This will help inform the actions and target setting and help us measure the success or otherwise so we can adapt.
How does it work?
VBA Go is a website that works on any connected device. All you need is your mobile phone and your existing VBA login details, or first, sign up to the VBA here
Simply take a photo of the species you identified and add it as a new observation. Once your location services are enabled, VBA Go can also get the location and date from this image, saving you even more time. You can also include information such as breeding behaviour and how many individuals were seen. Once you upload this record, it is shared directly with the VBA.
With this information collated in the one place, we can all make informed decisions about how to manage our environment, making it a key input informing where and when to undertake planned burning to keep communities safe and where we should protect and invest to ensure the survival of threatened species.
Click here to learn more about Victoria’s biodiversity and the Victorian Government’s new plan Protecting Victoria’s Environment – Biodiversity 2037
See the video demonstration below on how to use VBA Go.
To add your observations first register here with the VBA
Although it is simple to use, we have created a quick help guide and further information to get you started.
VBA Go Quick Start Guide (DOCX, 996.7 KB)
Find here video tutorials on sharing VBA data using VBA Go.
Let us know if there are functions or changes you would like for future releases at vba.help@delwp.vic.gov.au
Acknowledgements
VBA Go was made possible by the partnership between Public Sector Innovation Branch of the Department of Premier and Cabinet (DPC) and Code for Australia, through the Code for Victoria Innovation Challenge. The project's initial discovery phase was completed in partnership with Parks Victoria.
In this first release of VBA Go we have also integrated images and supporting information of Victorian species from the Royal Botanic Gardens VicFlora site, Museums Victoria and the Atlas of Living Australia.
We would also like to thank all the contributors and community groups that helped test and define what type of tools they wanted from the VBA.
Page last updated: 01/12/23