ADMADE Data Manager Introduction

ADMADE Data Manager: An Introduction

About the ADMADE Data Manager

The ADMADE Data Manager (or just ADM) is a Microsoft Access database that contains most of monitoring data from the ADMADE program. ADM is designed to fill several roles for different stakeholders. On the one hand, it is a tool for day to day data management, with easy to use data entry forms, data logging, and the ability to synchronize data entered on laptops in the field. It is also designed to be a tool for decision makers, with ready-made user friendly summaries of monitoring data in tabular, graphical, or map format. Finally, for experienced Access Users, ADM provides powerful tools to perform analyses on ADMADE's activities.

This guide briefly introduces some of the features and outputs of the ADMADE Data Manager. For more detailed information, including instructions on how to maintain and expand ADM, see the ADM Users Guide, which is available for downloading or by clicking the question mark button on the Main Menu.

Data Sets

Although it will likely grow over time, the data presently stored in ADM includes:

Field Patrols - ADMADE Village Scouts collect data while on anti-poaching patrols. They record information such as dates and location of the patrol, supplies taken, location of poacher camps, carcasses of animals, and sightings of live animals.

Safari Hunting Results - Whenever a safari client goes on a hunt, an ADMADE Village scout accompanies the party to record information such as location of the kill, search time, and trophy size. This information is used to help evaluate the sustainability of safari hunting and set quotas.

WCRF License Sales and Prices - Each time a client or professional hunter purchases hunting licenses for a safari hunt, a record is made in the Wildlife Conservation Revolving Fund database. This database is housed at the licensing office in Chilanga (Lusaka), and a portion of the money is returned to ADMADE Units for resource management and community development.

Staff Histories - each year the staff list for each ADMADE Unit is updated. Information which is recorded on individual employees includes their position, camp, rank, and highest level of education.

Quotas - hunting quotas specify the number of animals which can be legally hunted. Quotas are set by the NPWS and are updated once a year for each hunting block.

Demography - For some Village Area Groups, household demography data is available. This information is collected in door to door surveys by the CBDs who contracted to do the census.

Species Biology - This table contains basic biological parameters for many of the game species, including average body mass, minimum measurements for trophy specimens, gestation interval, water dependency, etc. This data can be used for biometric analyses and such.

Poacher Case Records - When poachers are caught, a dataform is filled out which records their personal information, charges levied against them, and punishment from the court. (This data set has not been completely entered.)

Population Trends Surveys - One of ADMADE's newer methods of assessing wildlife populations is to survey scouts, professional hunters, and trackers about the wildlife in their area.

Crop and Grainery Damage - Scouts who go for animal control record the type of crop destroyed, the amount of damage, the species involved, and the actions taken. (This data set is still being entered).

Documents - numerous field reports, land use plans, correspondence, and assorted other documents are available for many of the ADMADE Units.

Data Completeness

Some data sets are more complete than others, and some Game Management Areas have more data than others. There are a number of reasons for these variations, including the origin of the data (whether it is collected by Unit staff, monitoring teams from Nyamaluma, or comes from Chilanga), the distance of the area from Nyamaluma, and priorities and experience of the leadership in the field.

To find out what data is available for a given area, see the Unit Profile form, or the queries and interactive maps under the Data Availability category on the Main Menu.

Spatial Data

Several GIS layers are available for use in ADM. These can be displayed in the Handy Reference Map (available on the Window menu) or on one of the many Interactive Maps (however note not all interactive maps have all layers available, it up to the author to pick which layers are needed). Some of these covers were digitized at Nyamaluma, while others originated from other projects. All are national coverages are saved in shapefile format and can also be in GIS software such as ArcView.

Hunting blocks*

Units*

5km2 grids*

Scout camps*

GMA roads*

GMA rivers*

National parks

Districts

Provinces

Provincial capitals

National roads

National rivers

Railroads

Utility lines

Airports

Villages

Wetlands

*digitized at Nyamaluma

Expanding and Customizing ADM

This database has been designed to be easily expanded and adapted to meet the needs of different stakeholders. If you are familiar with MS Access, you can easily create new tables, queries, reports, and interactive charts and add them to the menu system. Interactive maps can also be created without any programming knowledge by selecting Map Definitions under Admin => Mapping Setup. New slides and slide templates can be created by selecting PowerPoint Slides on the Main Menu. See the ADM Users Guide for more information on customizing ADM for specific purposes.

In addition, because ADM is simply a standard MS Access database, you can use all the built in features of Microsoft Office to analyze the data. Tables and queries can be exported to Excel, links to the tables in ADM can be created in other databases, and you can using ODBC to link Access queries with ArcView for more sophisticated spatial analyses.

Main Menu

The ADM Main Menu is your entry point to all the data stored in the database. The menu is fairly simple to use. You first select a category in the upper left box, which roughly correspond to the datasets saved. You then select a sub-category in the upper right box, which list the type of objects available. Finally you make a choice in the box at the bottom, and click on one of the buttons.

Remember, you can also open the Online Users Guide by clicking on the question mark button on the lower left hand side of the menu.

Below are descriptions of the different types of objects that can accessed from the Main Menu. See Appendix A for a complete listing of the choices available from the Main Menu.

Click on the image for a full screen view

Data Entry Forms

Data Entry forms are used mostly for adding or editing data to the database. They can also be used to track down the original records for problem solving or probing the results of an analysis. Below is an example of the data entry form for Field Patrols:

The data entry form for Field Patrols.
Click on the image for a full screen view.

Queries

Queries present summaries of monitoring data in tabular format. Queries can be viewed on-screen or exported using the Export button or Save As command on the file menu. You can also use the Office Links command on the Tools menu to send a query to Excel or Word.

Click on the image a full screen view.

Reports

Reports are designed to be printed and can summarize a lot of data very quickly. See Appendix B for some sample reports. Note: Appendix B is only available in the PDF version of this introductory guide.

Interactive Charts

Interactive charts show monitoring data in graph form. You can customize the appearance of the graph by double-clicking it, or change the data displayed in the graph by clicking on the Filters button or sometimes by making selections in combo boxes on the graph itself. You can also copy the chart to the clipboard by clicking on it once and pressing control-C. Then you can paste it into another application such as MS Word or PowerPoint. Note that if you click the Caption button on an Interactive Chart, a window pops up which explains in plain English what the chart represents.

By clicking on the Filters button you can change the data in an Interactive Chart. The Caption button gives a plain English description of what the chart represents. Click on the image for a full screen view.

Interactive Maps

Many of the datasets in ADM are linked to map features, such as grids, hunting blocks, or camps. Interactive Maps allow you to view monitoring data in map form. There are many ways to customize the appearance of an interactive map by using the buttons on the map toolbar. See the online users guide for more assistance. You can also change the data being displayed in the graph by clicking on the Filters button.

Interactive Maps can be customized using buttons on the toolbar. You can change colors, make additional layers visible, zoom in and out, add labels, export the map to PowerPoint, pan to selected features, etc. This map shows the location of buffalo hunted in the Luangwa Valley in 1997. Here, the size and color of the buffaloes represent the number of animals killed in that grid. Click on the image for a full screen view

Note if you click the Caption button on an Interactive Map, a window pops up which explains in plain English what the map represents.

Slide Templates

ADM works with PowerPoint to create slides which summarize a variety of monitoring data in a variety of formats, including charts, tables, and maps. Slides are created based on a Slide Template which you define/use in ADM. Once a slide is created, you can edit it some more in PowerPoint, and/or print it out on a desktop printer or plotter. To see the available slide templates, select the PowerPoint Slides category on the Main Menu.

Click on the image for a full screen view.

Filter Manager

Almost all of the menu items in ADM allow you to select which data to view. For example, a query which shows the total amount of license sales may give you the option of selecting which hunting blocks and years to view. An interactive map showing the location of trophy animals may provide options for selecting which species, years, and hunting blocks to view. Most of the time you will make your choices using the Filter Manager:

Click on the image for a full screen view.

The Filter Manager is fairly easy to use. You simply make ticks in the boxes corresponding to the records you want to see. If you want to tick many records, you can use the All, None, and Toggle buttons to help you. Some filters also let you define groups of records for easy reselection. See the complete Users Guide for more information on this feature.

You see the Filter Manager whenever you open an item from the Main Menu. You can also open the Filter Manager by clicking the Filters button, which you usually see at the bottom of a form or on the toolbar. If you use the Filters button, the object will refresh itself when you're done so that it shows the new set of records selected.

Unit Profile Form

The Unit Profile forms tries to combine a variety of information on Units under one roof. Select the Unit Profile form from the Main Menu under Units and Hunting Blocks => Unit Profiles.

Click on the image for a full screen view.

Select a Unit from the combo box at the top of the form. The Unit Profiles form has different tabs to show different types of information on the Unit. Click on the different tabs to see what is available.

Appendix A - ADM Menu System

Appendix B - Sample Printouts (available in PDF version only)

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