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

Showing 30 of 56 results

Figure MAR39 Schematic of different types of cumulative impacts

2016
Marine environment
Effectiveness of management
Graph

Am image showing a representation of different types of activities, indicated by horizontal bars of 3 different colours, and the total impact of those activities, indicated by a vertical black line. The top part of the image shows activities that have no cumulative impact, in which...

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Cumulative impacts and management of multiple uses

2016
Marine environment
Effectiveness of management
Report Content

2016 Marine environment Effectiveness of management Great Barrier Reef Ecosystem-based management aims to balance human activities with environmental stewardship to maintain ecosystem...

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Managing biodiversity for resilience

2016
Biodiversity
Resilience
Report Content

2016 Biodiversity Resilience The ability of ecosystems to tolerate and recover from disturbance is a phenomenon that is vitally important to understand. Resilience has stimulated much valuable research that has...

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Resilience of inland water environments 2016

2016
Inland water
Resilience
At a glance

At a glanceA challenge in assessing resilience of inland water environments is recognising resilience when it occurs, especially because Australian ecosystems have developed to be both resistant and resilient. We can contribute to resilience by reducing extreme and detrimental ecosystem...

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Air pollution is a significant health hazard

2016
Atmosphere
Key Finding

2016  Urban air quality is a significant cause of death and illness. There is a statistically significant relationship between higher levels of fine particles and respiratory and cardiovascular disease, and increased mortality. In 2013, the International Agency for Research on Cancer...

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Box WAT6 Groundwater-dependent ecosystem risk assessment for declining groundwater levels

2016
Inland water
Risks
Case Study

The National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility has developed a risk assessment framework for groundwater-dependent ecosystems under conditions of declining groundwater levels (Chambers et al. 2013). The framework was developed by a multidisciplinary team of ecologists,...

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Figure BIO3 Most important knowledge gaps hindering effective management of biodiversity

2016
Biodiversity
Pressures
Graph

Most important knowledge gaps hindering effective management of biodiversity Most important knowledge gaps hindering effective management of biodiversity Percentage of respondents who said this gap was in the top 5Percentage of total responses Lack of data/...

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Effectiveness of management 2016

2016
Ambient air quality
Effectiveness of management
At a glance

At a glanceAustralia has had national standards and goals for ambient air quality for almost 20 years—the National Environment Protection Measure for Ambient Air Quality (Air NEPM). These are based on strong empirical evidence about the health impacts of major pollutants. However, revision...

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Natural heritage

2016
Heritage
Outlook
Report Content

2016 Heritage Outlook Murray Darling Timor Sea Great Barrier Reef Antarctica Australia’s natural heritage includes lands...

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Availability of information

2016
Biodiversity
Pressures
Report Content

2016 Biodiversity Pressures No consistent national-level data are available on the impact of pressures on all aspects of biodiversity in the past 5 years. The Australian Government released a Threatened Species...

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Ecosystem restoration

2016
Marine environment
Outlook
Report Content

2016 Marine environment Outlook Tasmania Marine ecosystems and their attributes, including species composition, ecosystem functions and resilience, are constantly changing. These changes can be...

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Water abstraction and interception

2016
Inland water
Risks
Report Content

2016 Inland water Risks Three factors contribute to the risk posed by increasing water abstraction and interception: the demands of a growing population increases in per-person water consumption for this population...

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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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Box HER16 Tasmanian Heritage Register Integrity Project

2016
Heritage
State and trends
Case Study
... to evaluate whether each register entry meets the required threshold as defined by the criteria in the Act. The audit ...
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Identification: Listing Jurisdictions

2016
Heritage
State and trends
Report Content

2016 Heritage State and trends South Coast Murray Darling North East Coast Tasmania Timor Sea...

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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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Resilience of the Antarctic environment 2016

2016
Antarctic environment
Resilience
At a glance

At 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...

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Effectiveness of management 2016

2016
Climate
Effectiveness of management
At a glance

At a glanceClimate change is a global problem that will require coordinated international action by all countries. The Paris Agreement, to which 195 countries (including Australia) have agreed, aims to hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-...

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Outlook for Australia's air quality

2016
Ambient air quality
Outlook
At a glance

At a glanceThe outlook for Australia’s urban air quality is generally good. However, there is strong evidence that periods of poor urban air quality can have serious adverse long-term and short-term impacts on human health (particularly on the health of susceptible individuals). Although...

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Risks to biodiversity 2016

2016
Biodiversity
Risks
At a glance

At a glanceEscalation of existing risks such as invasive species, climate change and changing fire regimes, and the interactions between these risks, will continue to exert significant and widespread changes on biodiversity. The importance of some risks, or at least the perception of those...

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State and trends of Australia’s heritage 2016

2016
Heritage
State and trends
At a glance

At a glanceAustralia’s heritage registers list natural and cultural places at national, state and local levels, but in an inconsistent manner, and with disparate levels of resourcing and regulation. As announced during the 2014 International Union for Conservation of Nature World Parks...

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Australian Antarctic Program’s station environment: Operation indicators

2016
Antarctic environment
State and trends
Report Content

2016 Antarctic environment State and trends Antarctica Although human activity across Antarctica has increased during recent decades, it remains much lower than for all other continents. Human...

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Managing for resilience

2016
Marine environment
Resilience
Report Content

2016 Marine environment Resilience Great Barrier Reef Marine North Marine North West Marine South East Most management...

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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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Changing land use and management

2016
Inland water
Pressures
Report Content

2016 Inland water Pressures Tasmania Great Barrier Reef Land use and land management can produce pressures on aquatic environments that include changes to flow, water...

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Resilience of marine systems

2016
Marine environment
Resilience
Report Content

2016 Marine environment Resilience Tasmania Great Barrier Reef The concept of resilience is not straightforward, with definitions varying across social and scientific...

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Heritage listings

2016
Heritage
Introduction
Report Content

2016 Heritage Introduction Antarctica Identifying and protecting heritage places is fundamental to ensuring that they are appropriately conserved, celebrated and passed on to future generations...

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State and trends of the Australian Antarctic program’s station environment

2016, 2011
Antarctic environment
State and trends
Assessment summary

The title of this assessment summary has changed for 2016. The original 2011 summary, grade, trend and confidence levels have been replicated here to assist comparison of changes between reporting cycles. State and trends of the station environment...

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Factors affecting resilience capacity

2016
Biodiversity
Resilience
Report Content

2016 Biodiversity Resilience Murray Darling Tasmania Multiple factors acting at various levels of organisation, from species to landscapes, will interact to determine...

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Climate change

2016
Inland water
Risks
Report Content

2016 Inland water Risks South East Coast South Australian Gulf North Western Plateau Murray Darling North East Coast...

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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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