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Resilience of the land environment 2016
2016 At a glanceAt a glanceAustralian landscapes have evolved with soils and vegetation in equilibrium with the climate and natural disturbance regime. Land management activities disturb that equilibrium. Although we may not see all of the ensuing changes, the subtle and slowly accumulating ones can be the...
Resilience of the coastal environment 2016
2016 At a glanceAt a glanceResilience of the coastal environment includes its resistance to change and its ability to recover once disturbed. Resistance to change is linked to the maintenance of high biodiversity, which is expected to provide greater redundancy in ecological functions. Resistance can also...
Managing biodiversity for resilience
2016 Report Content The ability of ecosystems to tolerate and recover from disturbance is a phenomenon that is vitally important to understand. Resilience ...
Resilience of biodiversity 2016
2016 At a glanceAt a glanceResilience is a key underpinning principle of Australia’s Biodiversity Conservation Strategy 2010–2030, as well as state and territory, and regional biodiversity strategies. The definition of resilience in biodiversity strategies and policies is still relatively ambiguous, and...
Pressures from livestock production
2016 Report Content2016 Biodiversity Pressures Livestock production is the dominant land use in the extensive land-use zone of Australia (see the Land report for further information). It is considered a major contributing factor to the...
Box HER29 Western Australian Aboriginal heritage protection
2016 Case StudyThe Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 (WA) protects all Aboriginal heritage sites in the state, whether registered or not. Consent is required for any action that will adversely affect Aboriginal heritage sites. The expert Aboriginal Cultural Material Committee considers applications...
Risks to the built environment 2016
2016 At a glanceAt a glanceExtreme weather and natural events are considered the largest risks to the built environment. The likelihood of occurrence of these events is considered ‘almost certain’, with the impacts variable, depending on the risk. Despite the assessment that the built environment is quite...
Vegetation
2016 Report Content2016 Land Resilience The resilience of vegetation is largely determined by our success or failure in maintaining resilience in landscapes and soils, as discussed in the Landscape and soil section. Maintenance of...
Pressures affecting the Antarctic terrestrial environment
2016, 2011 Assessment summaryAntarctic environment Pressures Pressures on the terrestrial environment Antarctica Year...
Resilience
2016 At a glanceResilience is the ability of the environment to withstand or recover from a shock or disturbance. Although the concept of resilience was developed and is mainly used in relation to ecosystems, it is a valuable concept across the environment and in environmental management. Effective...
Risks to heritage 2016
2016 At a glanceAt a glanceAustralia’s heritage continues to be under-resourced, and at risk from both natural and human factors. Some risks, such as catastrophic fire or extreme weather events, may not be easily mitigated, and instead may require post-event response. Events such as the removal of statutory...
Resilience of the Antarctic environment 2016
2016 At a glanceAt a glanceAlthough organisms living in Antarctica have evolved to cope with severe events, it is challenging to measure their level of resilience and to predict how future climate change will affect Antarctic ecosystems. This is largely because our understanding of key parameters is still...
Figure BIO2 Pressures affecting species listed as nationally threatened under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999
2016 GraphPressures affecting species listed as threatened under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act Pressures affecting species listed as threatened under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act Proportion of EPBC listed...
Resilience of marine systems
2016 Report Content2016 Marine environment Resilience Tasmania Great Barrier Reef The concept of resilience is not straightforward, with definitions varying across social and scientific...
Overview of resilience of the antarctic environment
2016 Report Content2016 Antarctic environment Resilience Antarctica Natural disturbances are part of life in Antarctic ecosystems, and the native species can generally survive shock events because they have...
Figure BIO27 Distribution of (a) currently listed freshwater fish, (b) species identified as potentially vulnerable, (c) river condition and (d) freshwater fish research effort across Australia
2016 MapInteract with mapDownload as pngDownload dataset Note: The scale represents the number of species of each category found in each catchment (a and b). The condition of Australian rivers (c) is adapted from Stein et al. (2002), with 1 being the most pristine and 8 the most disturbed...
Resilience of the built environment 2016
2016 At a glanceAt a glanceFor the built environment, resilience refers to the capacity of the built environment to retain or recover its structure, functions and amenity after experiencing shocks. Historically, Australian cities have coped reasonably well with disaster events such as storms or floods, and...
Resilience of the marine environment 2016
2016 At a glanceAt a glanceResilience can be considered to be the capacity of a system to keep functioning even when disturbed. Current understanding of the resilience of Australia’s marine environment is limited because of the vast spatial extent of Australia’s marine ecosystems, their complexity, the many...
Pressures affecting the environment
2016 At a glanceTo understand the state and trends of Australia’s environment, it is necessary to consider both the historical pressures that have had a profound impact on the environment, and the contemporary pressures that directly and indirectly influence the state of the environment. Historical changes...
Approach - Atmosphere 2016
2016 Report Content2016 Atmosphere In this report, we assess the state of Australia’s atmosphere through an assessment of Australia’s climate and the effects of climate change, and ambient air quality. The approach adopted in this report follows that outlined in the...
Resilience of Australia’s air quality 2016
2016 At a glanceAt a glanceThe frequency, duration and severity of episodes of poor air quality in urban centres are influenced by short-term meteorological conditions, in combination with local topography and/or atypical emissions. Air quality is usually restored to acceptable levels once the immediate...
Resilience of Australia’s heritage 2016
2016 At a glanceAt a glanceThe resilience of Australia’s heritage can be considered in relation to both individual heritage places and the total heritage resource. The ability of individual places or wider resources to withstand shocks depends on the nature of specific heritage values and their...
Vegetation
2016 Report Content2016 Land Introduction Like the soil that supports it, vegetation is fundamental to ecosystem processes and human survival. Vegetation is vital for: producing oxygen for animal and human life maintaining air quality...
Box LAN13 HCAS—a new way to assess continuous variation in the condition of natural habitats for terrestrial biodiversity across whole regions using remote sensing data
2016 Case StudyIn a recent article in Methods in Ecology and Evolution by Harwood et al. (2016), CSIRO reports on a novel approach to the difficulty in obtaining consistent and repeatable measurement of habitat condition for biodiversity across large areas, using remote sensing with limited...
Landscape and soil
2016 Report Content... biota) is in some sort of equilibrium with the climate and disturbance factors such as bushfire. This equilibrium is disturbed by land ...
Freshwater species and ecosystems
2016 Report Content2016 Biodiversity State and trends Murray Darling Tasmania Great Barrier Reef Australian Capital Territory Lake Eyre...
Overview of effectiveness of management of the built environment
2016 Report Content2016 Built environment Effectiveness of management In April 2016, the Australian Government released the Smart Cities Plan (DPMC 2016). The plan outlines the Australian Government’s vision for cities—metropolitan and...
Pressures affecting the Antarctic environment 2016
2016 At a glanceAt a glanceThe climate of Antarctica is changing. Compared with conditions prevailing in the 1950s, parts of West Antarctica—particularly the Antarctic Peninsula region—have warmed. In East Antarctica, where Australia operates, temperatures have also increased, but to a lesser extent. Across...
Resilience of Australia’s climate 2016
2016 At a glanceAt a glanceOur planet is somewhat resilient to increasing carbon dioxide (CO2) levels because atmospheric CO2 is absorbed by the oceans. During recent decades, the oceans have taken up approximately 25 per cent of the annual anthropogenic CO2 emissions to the atmosphere. However, the...
Land: 2011–16 in context
2016 Report Content2016 Land Introduction North East Coast Tasmania Lake Eyre The past 5 years has seen an ongoing relaxation of the effects of the millennium...
