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Historic Content you are reading content from a previous reporting year.

Showing 30 of 359 results

Effectiveness of management for specific pressures and drivers

2016
Effectiveness of management
Report Content

2016 Effectiveness of management Earlier, we noted that the complex and dynamic relationships between drivers, pressures, ecosystems and humans call for policies and management actions that address both drivers and pressures. In many cases, the most...

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Resilience of Australia’s heritage 2016

2016
Heritage
Resilience
At a glance

At 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...

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Approaches to resilience

2016
Heritage
Resilience
Report Content
The concept of resilience has not been widely applied in Australian heritage management (see ‘Resilience’ in the SoE 2011 Heritage chapter, ... impact assessments also try to evaluate the impact of specific development proposals, and often conclude that there ...
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Overview of resilience of the antarctic environment

2016
Antarctic environment
Resilience
Report Content

2016 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...

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Resilience of Australia’s climate 2016

2016
Climate
Resilience
At a glance

At 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...

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Evidence of past resilience

2016
Heritage
Resilience
Report Content
The resilience of heritage places depends on the nature of their ...
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Resilience of marine systems

2016
Marine environment
Resilience
Report Content
The concept of resilience is not straightforward, with definitions varying ... vary, depending on the system of focus. Definitions of resilience can contain any combination of 3 major principles ...
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Overview of resilience of the marine environment

2016
Marine environment
Resilience
Report Content
Current understanding of the resilience of Australia’s marine environment is limited ... the environment across timescales relevant for assessing resilience. ...
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Managing for resilience

2016
Marine environment
Resilience
Report Content
Most management systems aimed at maintaining or enhancing resilience in components of the marine environment focus on ...
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Approach - Marine environment 2016

2016
Marine environment
Report Content
... environment and their effectiveness are evaluated, and the resilience of the environment in light of current management frameworks is discussed (see Resilience of the marine environment  for the definition of ... of assessments have been increased by tasking specific experts to develop assessments using identified data ...
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Resilience of our environment and society

2016
Climate
Resilience
Report Content
The resilience of a society is dependent on the sensitivity of ...
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Outlook under an 'improved future' scenario

2016
Outlook
Report Content

2016 Outlook An ‘improved future’ scenario for Australia’s environment would see innovation in policy, technical and associated management approaches to: halt and reverse the decline in the environment, and the ecological processes that maintain...

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Effectiveness of biodiversity management

2016, 2011
Biodiversity
Effectiveness of management
Assessment summary

Biodiversity Effectiveness of management Management statusNew technologies, solutions and innovationsAssessing the effectiveness of biodiversity managementManagement initiatives and investmentsManagement capacityManagement...

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Resilience

2016
Resilience
At a glance

Resilience 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...

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Ecosystem restoration

2016
Marine environment
Outlook
Report Content
... including species composition, ecosystem functions and resilience, are constantly changing. These changes can be ...
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Executive Summary - Atmosphere

2016
Atmosphere
Executive Summary

Atmosphere 2016Climate change is a global problem, and minimising its impact on the Australian environment will require coordinated international action by all countries. The Paris Agreement, to which 195 countries have agreed, aims to hold the increase in the...

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Escalation of existing pressures

2016
Biodiversity
Risks
Report Content

2016 Biodiversity Risks It is inevitable that the impact of climate change will continue to increase, given current trajectories (see the Drivers and Atmosphere reports). The interaction of climate change with other...

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Management context

2016
Land
Effectiveness of management
Report Content
... stable, despite flux in the names, structures and specific responsibilities of the government departments and ...
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Resilience of biodiversity 2016

2016
Biodiversity
Resilience
At a glance

At 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...

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Managing biodiversity for resilience

2016
Biodiversity
Resilience
Report Content
... is a phenomenon that is vitally important to understand. Resilience has stimulated much valuable research that has ... persistence and recovery. However, use of the concept of resilience in policy and strategies is often quite ambiguous, ... of any policy or management program designed to strengthen resilience will require greater clarity around how resilience ...
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Factors affecting resilience capacity

2016
Heritage
Resilience
Report Content

2016 Heritage Resilience A major systemic threat to Australia’s heritage is its relative priority in planning, land use and development decision-making. Heritage is often determined to be expendable in the name of a...

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Factors affecting resilience capacity

2016
Biodiversity
Resilience
Report Content
... from species to landscapes, will interact to determine resilience capacity. For example, a species’ sensitivity to ... response to its environment) are properties that underpin resilience (these are described in more detail in SoE 2011). ... in the landscape are important properties affecting resilience ( Oliver et   al. 2015 ). ...
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Evidence of past resilience

2016
Biodiversity
Resilience
Report Content
... of strategies that different species employ that provide resilience to change. However, although our biodiversity is ...
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Resilience of our climate

2016
Climate
Resilience
Report Content

2016 Climate Resilience The ability of the climate system to recover from changes to the composition of the atmosphere (particularly increasing CO2 concentrations) is complicated by the fact that the removal of CO2...

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Effectiveness of inland water management

2016, 2011
Inland water
Effectiveness of management
Assessment summary

Inland water Effectiveness of management Recent national assessments of management performanceWater management in AustraliaReviews of state and regional managementReviews of state and regional management Murray DarlingTasmania...

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Risks to heritage 2016

2016
Heritage
Risks
At a glance

At 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...

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Outlook for the land environment 2016

2016
Land
Outlook
At a glance

At a glanceThe outlook for Australia’s land environment is shaped by the legacy of our former activities, the current and future pressures on the land environment, and how we respond to these pressures. The many consequences of climate change provide the greatest challenges. The challenges...

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Effectiveness of marine management

2016, 2011
Marine environment
Effectiveness of management
Assessment summary

Marine environment Effectiveness of management Triage responses to changes resulting from pressuresCumulative impacts and management of multiple usesSustainability and sector managementEnvironment protection systemsEvaluation of...

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Overview of resilience of heritage

2016
Heritage
Resilience
Report Content
... what distinguish heritage places from other places, the resilience of heritage places may be understood as their ...
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Overview of resilience of coasts

2016
Coasts
Resilience
Report Content
The resilience of the coast varies markedly between areas and ...
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Australia State of the Environment 2016 has been prepared by independent experts using the best available information to support assessments of environmental condition, pressures, management effectiveness, resilience, risks and outlook.

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We, the authors, acknowledge the traditional owners of Country throughout Australia and their continuing connection to land, sea and community; we pay respect to them and their cultures and to their elders both past and present.

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