The Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment (DAWE) is pleased to announce the release of the redeveloped Climatch (v2.0).
Head of Biosecurity, Andrew Tongue, said Climatch was an important tool for predicting the potential spread of exotic species in Australia to assist preparing for and responding to pest and disease incursions to strengthen the national biosecurity system.
“Exotic pests and pests and diseases pose significant threats to Australia’s agriculture industries and environment,” Mr Tongue said
“Climatch is a simple, easy to use web application tool that uses climate matching to determine the potential distribution of introduced invasive species.
“It predicts the potential range over which a species could establish and spread by matching climate data from source regions where it currently occurs, to climate data from target regions in Australia.
“Climatch has recently undergone a major upgrade. The upgraded version includes improved performance and stability as well as an enhanced mapping interface.
“A number of other functional improvements have also been added, such as interactive map functions, additional map layers, and an expanded set of output file formats that can be opened in other programs.
“The department, in its role as the custodian of the National Emergency Biosecurity Response Agreement, uses Climatch to determine the potential distribution range of new pest incursions.
“We also use it for undertaking risk assessments for live animal imports, and in designing targeted surveillance to strengthen Australia’s pest prevention, preparedness and response capabilities. “
Climatch is owned by the department and was developed by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences.
Climatch is publicly available and free for use by researchers world-wide.
