Australian Natural Resources Information 2002
National Land and Water Resources Audit, 2002
ISBN: 0 642 37131 8
Building an Integrated Natural Resources Information System
Natural resource management requires sound monitoring, reporting and assessment to track progress and maximise returns on investment. Australia has the opportunity to improve the efficient use of natural resources by allowing decisions about their allocation to be clearly based on the compilation, integration, analysis and interpretation of the best available scientific and technical information.
A broad community of users requires access to natural resources information to make optimal decisions.
Requirements for natural resource information
National, State and Territory governments
Ministers, government agencies, Ministerial councils and their standing committees require data and information about natural resources to:
- underpin assessments of the status and trends in condition of Australia's resources at scales that allow broad priorities to be set and outcomes to be measured against those priorities;
- evaluate regional plans in the context of partnership initiatives (e.g. the Natural Heritage Trust and the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality), to ensure the plans are robust and address priority issues in the region;
- monitor compliance with legislation;
- track progress in initiatives, their impacts and effectiveness in fostering change to meet targets; and
- meet regional, national and international reporting obligations.
Regional
Regional communities and organisations require data and information about natural resources to:
- underpin community participation in preparing, implementing and evaluating natural resource management plans;
- help provide an understanding of the geographic distribution of problems and their implications across the region;
- track improvements in the condition of the environment and progress towards meeting targets and agreed outcomes in regional plans;
- assess the effectiveness of land conservation activities; and
- improve awareness of landscape processes.
Private sector
The private sector requires better information to:
- target investment;
- optimise matching land use and management with available landscape resources; and
- implement environmental management systems.
Scientific community
The scientific community requires improved natural resource information to:
- better understand biophysical processes;
- create improved landscape management tools (e.g. better simulation models
- to assess the environmental impact of farming systems); and
- develop improved natural resource management systems.
Issues such as ecological sustainability and the social and economic impacts of land degradation pose questions such as:
- Where are current land use practices sustainable?
- What management actions are appropriate across industries and commodities to minimise off-site impacts?
- What are the social and economic effects of land degradation on rural Australia?
To answer these questions we need data about agricultural land use practices, land tenure, land degradation patterns and commodity economics. Investment in natural resource data and information must ensure that data are:
- relevant—providing factual social, economic, and environmental information that meet requirements of users with different perspectives, interests and values;
- accessible—presented in a way that is easy to understand and readily available; and
- consistent and comparable—able to be integrated with other data to analyse trends in the state of natural resources.
Dryland salinity in the Boorowa Shire
We realise salinity as a problem, is here now and it is a problem for the future.
It is affecting our Council infrastructure, our roads, pipelines, water mains, building foundations. It is happening whether you know about it or not.
When the stakes are so high, the costs are potentially so great local councils must have good information on which to base decisions. The [Australian Natural Resources] Atlas is a much-needed addition, a welcome new tool to assist councils in decision making. For Boorowa, the compilation of this information and its accessibility helps shed light as we make difficult choices. We'll certainly be endeavouring to ground-truth this information and feedback our knowledge to the Audit directly and via the likes of Greening Australia. This will also help develop a growing body of knowledge.
Robert Gledhill—Mayor Boorowa Shire
September 2001
Building the information services
Building on past achievements, the Audit has designed information services at scales relevant to decision makers, mainly at national and regional scales. Audit work plans were designed to assess the status and, where possible, trend of Australia's natural resource base and to apply this information to identify management priorities and actions.
The Audit adopted an integrated data cycle and data management approach as outlined by the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO 1998).
Building the system
1998
Reviewing user requirements
Requirements of State, Territory and Commonwealth government users were reviewed to define the scope, quantity and quality of natural resource data needed to meet their needs (Hassall and Associates 1998).
Strategic work plan formulation
Priorities identified were translated into the strategic work plan (NLWRA 1998) and thematic work plans.
1999
Data management arrangements
Protocols were agreed with State, Territory and Commonwealth data custodians to minimise duplication of effort in data collection. A common data management framework was developed for all Audit projects. The framework defined geographic referencing benchmarks, standard coding and terminology. An information management manual identifying guidelines for data collection and data transfer was released. The guidelines ensured that data products from Audit projects could be easily used in Audit assessments and successfully integrated into the Australian Spatial Data Infrastructure.
2000
System design
Data management and reporting systems were designed and developed. A prototype of the Australian Natural Resources Atlas was released in April 2000. Testing of the system by users was used to improve access to information and the design of the service. The primary focus of the Audit's public information management services has been to present national assessments. Data and information in the Australian Natural Resources Atlas were linked where possible to information available over the Internet from State and Territory agencies to assist users find more detailed information.
2001
Analysis and reporting
Integrated results of Audit assessments were made available as they were completed through the Australian Natural Resources Atlas and Data Library. Results were also linked to the most up-to-date data available from State, Territory and Commonwealth agencies. The Australian Natural Resources Atlas and Data Library are continuously being updated.
Maintenance
Arrangements are being established for continued updating and management of fundamental sets of data such as native vegetation, land use and soils. This will help ensure that systems continue to be updated and managed for future natural resource assessments and monitoring of the environment. The Australian Natural Resources Information Operational Manual (NLWRA 2001f) details the technical issues, standards, guidelines and protocols associated with the design and development of the system.
Data access agreement
A landmark national agreement to improve access to natural resource data for the community was signed with ANZLIC - the Spatial Information Council. The agreement is supported by data custodians from all governments and streamlines access to and the transfer, sharing and management of, natural resources data.
Figure 2 illustrates the type of information products that are available through the Australian Natural Resources Atlas and Data Library, and the links with other community information services available over the Internet.
Click on image to enlarge
Streamlined access to consistent, Australia-wide natural resource data
Many Australia-wide natural resource databases are incomplete and inconsistent. Data quality and accuracy are often unknown.
The Audit adopted the following principles so that data and information products could be integrated to help answer natural resource management questions, as well as support the ongoing development of the Australian Spatial Data Infrastructure.
To ensure that data from Audit projects are comparable and consistent where required all data were:
- developed and maintained to meet agreed international or national guidelines or standards for the management of information as endorsed by ANZLIC - the Spatial Information Council or through national coordination arrangements.
To help users easily find and get access to the data from Audit projects, all data are:
- documented in the Australian Spatial Data Directory. The documentation provides enough information for users to determine whether the data are suitable for their purpose.
- easily accessible to all sectors of the community in formats, location, cost and under conditions that promote their wide use.
Building an inconsistent infrastructure can be costly to standardise after it is in place
To protect the rights of all contributors to the data, all data are:
- accompanied by a licence when transferred clearly setting out the conditions under which the data may be used, the rights and responsibilities of the data provider, and the rights and responsibilities of the data receiver. Licence arrangements ensure map information is accessible, while still protecting copyright, intellectual property, privacy and confidentiality. Rights relate to both individuals and governments.
The following chapters demonstrate the implementation of the Australian Spatial Data Infrastructure principles to efficiently build, analyse and distribute natural resources data.
Australian Spatial Data Infrastructure
ANZLIC - the Spatial Information Council is responsible for coordinating the implementation of the Australian Spatial Data Infrastructure.
The Australian Spatial Data Infrastructure is a national initiative to provide better access to essential spatial data. The Australian Spatial Data Infrastructure has four elements:
Fundamental data
Fundamental data are the Australia-wide data that are required by more than one government agency. All data are checked for format documentation content, standards, accessibility, quality, and have arrangements to ensure that the data are maintained.
Distribution
A distribution network for enquiring, search, discovery, viewing, and retrieval of data over the Internet.
As a first step, the Australian Spatial Data Directory was established in 1998 to provide a service, available over the Internet, to help users to quickly find spatial data of interest to them.
Standards
International standards are applied to data to simplify access and improve data quality and integration. Standards are required for consistent reference systems, data quality, data transfer and documentation.
Institutional framework
The policy and administrative arrangements for building, maintaining, accessing and applying the standards and data for a national data infrastructure.
ANZLIC - the Spatial Information Council
ANZLIC - the Spatial Information Council is the peak council for public sector spatial data management in Australia. To encourage the development of quality, spatially referenced information, ANZLIC - the Spatial Information Council provides:
- national leadership and advocacy in all areas of spatial information, including natural resources information;
- partnerships between the community, industry and governments; and
- promulgation and adoption of standards, policies and guidelines.
By 2005, ANZLIC - the Spatial Information Council aims to:
- establish a comprehensive framework of policies and standards for spatial data and its management;
- encourage availability of accessible fundamental data, compliant with standards for the spatial data infrastructure;
- gain recognition, at all levels of government, industry and the community, of the need for quality, spatially referenced information;
- coordinate development of national standards for data directories and mapping services;
- foster improvements in the quality of summary documentation available through the Australian Spatial Data Directory;
- foster better archiving procedures to avoid loss of fundamental data; and
- identify fundamental data and their custodians.