Australia's Natural Resources
1997-2002 and beyond
National Land and Water Resources Audit, 2002
Appendix 2 - Australian Natural Resources Information 2002
Recommendations
Maximum value for money
To maximise investment in data collection and the provision of information at a range of scales, it is recommended that the Natural Heritage Ministerial Board, through the Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council, ensure that the Commonwealth, State and Territory agencies use standard conditions in contracts and agreements when collecting natural resource data. Conditions should seek to improve the availability of consistent natural resource data to government, industry and the community. The conditions should ensure that:
- data are made available to the community within the time frames and forms that maximise their use;
- data are collated and made available using nationally agreed standards and guidelines for the Australian Spatial Data Infrastructure as endorsed by ANZLIC-the Spatial Information Council;
- spatial data are fully documented in the Australian Spatial Data Directory;
- data are available through a single licence agreement, such as the agreement developed between the Audit and ANZLIC-the Spatial Information Council and supported by Commonwealth, States and Territories; and
- there are no limitations on the use of natural resource data funded through these projects.
Commonwealth, State and Territory agencies should be encouraged to adopt these conditions for all spatial data.
Progress reports
It is recommended that the Natural Heritage Ministerial Board through the Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council, requests that ANZLIC-the Spatial Information Council provide yearly reports on the status of the natural resource spatial data infrastructure to the Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council detailing progress on key activities to:
ensure that users can find out whether suitable natural resources data exist by:
- reviewing the Australian Spatial Data Directory and measure trends in the quality and availability of information about natural resource data; and
- recommending actions for consideration by the Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council to improve the quality and availability of information about natural resource data (metadata).
ensure that the government, industry and the community can easily obtain natural resource data by:
- reviewing the availability of natural resource data from government to the community and identify important natural resource data that are in a format or location, at cost, or under licence conditions that inhibit their use; and
- recommending actions for consideration by the Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council in improve the availability of natural resource data.
ensure that natural resource data are comparable and consistent, when required, by:
- providing detailed audits on the progress of fundamental Australia-wide sets of natural resource data in meeting guidelines developed for the Australian Spatial Data Infrastructure; and
- recommending actions for consideration by the Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council to improve the development of fundamental Australia-wide sets of natural resource data.
reduce duplication by:
- identifying opportunities for cooperation to avoid duplication and maximise benefits of investment in collection of natural resource data.