Abstract:
The Hawaiian Natural Resources Monitoring Database ("the Monitoring Database")
is a software package designed as a tool for data entry and analysis for
resource monitoring by land managers in Hawaii. The Monitoring Database is a
product of the Research Corporation of the University of Hawaii. The software
was developed using Paradox for Windows (Borland), chosen because of
... its
combination of ease of use for end users AND flexibility of custom design
(programming) capabilities.
The purpose of the Monitoring Database is to facilitate standardized and
fully-documented data collection efforts by federal, state, and private
agencies. Data collected by various agencies in different areas will then be
comparable, enhancing the value of each agency's work by allowing them to
compare their data to similar data collected by other agencies. This
comparability will allow a "big picture" approach to analysis of this type of
scientific data never before possible in Hawaii.
The first precursor to the Monitoring Database was an idea to put into a
database information on all plant (and invertebrate) taxa in Haleakala National
Park (Maui). Information was converted from word processing documents and a
database was formed. Other related offshoot projects include a taxon-linked
bibliographic tracking database, an alien species database ("Harmful
NonIndigenous Species" [HNIS]), a database of plant pathogens in Hawaii, a
database used for tracking the Federal Endangered/Threatened status of Hawaiian
species, and a prototyped, soon-to-be-developed database for tracking feral
animal control efforts. The main infrastructure common to all these databases
(taxon information) was designed to be compatible with that of the Botany
Department of the Bernice P. Bishop Museum (Honolulu). (The museum's data
structures are based on international biological database standards.)
The actualization of the Monitoring Database was sparked by a need of Guy
Hughes (then with The Nature Conservancy of Hawaii [TNCH] [Maui], currently a
graduate student at Harvard University) to analyze data and incorporate
information and graphic output of complex analyses into a report about TNC's
Waikamoi Preserve on East Maui. Hughes' field methods were modified versions of
those set forth in a document compiled by Pat Dunn describing field data
collection methods used/to be used in Hawaii. (Hughes' methods are referred to
throughout the Monitoring Database documentation as the "modified Dunn
protocol.") The idea of creating a statewide standard monitoring protocol was
proposed at a meeting of the East Maui Watershed Partnership (EMWP). Since
then, TNCH has used the Monitoring Database to incorporate data from tests (for
EMWP) in Waikamoi of new, somewhat modified field methods. Eventually, the
methods that are settled upon based on these trials will be proposed as
statewide standards for situations to which each respective method is
applicable.
A license to use the Monitoring Database is available free of charge to
qualifying agencies, organizations, businesses, private landowners, educational
institutions, and individuals. Use of the Monitoring Database by a wide range
of audiences is encouraged. Licenses granted are licenses for USE of the
Monitoring Database software; they do NOT transfer ownership of the software,
nor do they guarantee support for the product. The software may not be sold or
redistributed in part or in whole except as explicitly detailed in the license
agreement. One of the main reasons for this is to ensure that all users of the
software are known to the Monitoring Database Project Coordinator, so users can
be apprised of updates to the software. Contact the Monitoring Database Project
Coordinator for further details.
You may download the current draft* of the Monitoring Database documentation
from http://www.hear.org/MonitoringDatabase/. Selected Monitoring Database
information, news, updates, and possibly an interactive run-through of the
menus and/or a copy of the software itself will eventually be available for
download from this website. 
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