Two drivers are increasingly likely to shape Australia’s environmental challenges in the coming decades: population growth, distribution and composition; and economic activity.
2016
Climate change is an increasingly important and pervasive pressure on all aspects of the Australian environment. Although our climate and its high natural variability from year to year have always been a major influence on the state of the Australian environment, strong evidence shows that the cl
2016
Land clearing is a fundamental pressure on the environment. It causes the loss, fragmentation and degradation of native vegetation, and a variety of impacts on our soils (e.g. erosion and loss of nutrients), waterways and coastal regions (e.g. sedimentation and pollution).
2016
Invasive species are animals, plants, parasites or disease-causing organisms that establish themselves outside their natural range and become pests.
2016
The interactions between pressures can result in cumulative impacts, amplifying the threat faced by the Australian environment.
2016
The changes to Australia’s climate arising from global climate change include increased average surface air temperature, increased incidence of heatwaves, decreased average rainfall in parts of the country, an increase in drought frequency and severity, sea level rise, more extreme daily rainfall
2016
Australia’s urban amenity is generally good. Although our urban populations are still consuming significant resources, they are using energy more efficiently than in 2011.
2016
Australia’s extraordinary and diverse natural and cultural heritage generally remains in good condition, despite some deterioration and emerging challenges.
2016
Understanding of the state of biodiversity in Australia is improving for a small number of taxa, although our knowledge is inadequate because limited information is available for the vast majority of taxa, and few long-term monitoring programs are in place.
2016
The impacts of human land use are spread unevenly across the country. Vegetation clearing is concentrated in the long-settled agricultural and coastal zones, where more than 50 per cent of native vegetation has typically been cleared.
2016
National water storage levels varied, from above 80 per cent in 2011 to below 50 per cent in 2015.
2016
The condition of Australia’s coastal environment is mixed, being largely good in the north-west and far north-east of the country, and largely poor in the east, south-east and south-west.
2016
Australia’s marine environment encompasses the seabed; the water column; physical, biogeochemical and ecological processes that play an important role in shaping the marine environment; and habitats, communities and species groups, which all interact in highly complex ways.
2016
Australia has had national standards and goals for ambient air quality for almost 20 years: the National Environment Protection Measures for Ambient Air Quality.
2016
The physical and chemical components of the Antarctic environment are changing in response to global pressures of human activity and climate change. These changes are occurring against a backdrop of climatic variability.
2016
In April 2016, the Australian Government released the Smart Cities Plan. The plan outlines the Australian Government’s vision for cities—metropolitan and regional—and how policy, investment and technology can deliver integrated long-term planning, targeted investment and urban policy reform.
2016
The most significant national heritage management initiative since 2011 has been the preparation and launch of the Australian Heritage Strategy (DoE 2015a), which, for the first time, provides a nationally driven strategic direction for heritage management across
2016
A key policy initiative for threatened species management since 2011 has been the development of the Threatened Species Strategy (DoE 2015b).
2016
In 2014, the creation of the National Landcare Programme merged the Caring for our Country and Landcare programs. This aims to streamline governance processes and coordinate investments from national to local scale.
2016
The Murray–Darling Basin Plan, which came into effect in late 2012, guides governments, regional authorities and communities about how to sustainably manage and use the surface waters and groundwaters of the Basin.
2016
Coastal management in Australia uses a range of approaches by multiple levels of government. The majority of management is done by local councils and state governments.
2016
Many improvements to management frameworks across Australian Government, state and territory jurisdictions introduced since 2011, including the implementation of new national regulators, have had beneficial outcomes for the marine environment.
2016
Australia has improved various aspects of its human presence in Antarctica through improved waste treatment and repatriation, greater biosecurity screening of material transported to and from Antarctica, and successful eradication of cats, rabbits and rodents on Macquarie Island.
2016
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.
2016
Without detracting from positive trends in some areas, successive SoE reports have highlighted consistent problems and trends for the Australian environment.
2016
Managing the environment increasingly requires an understanding of how different pressures interact, and how management frameworks interact across different jurisdictions and sectors.
2016
The Atmosphere report considers both the resilience of the climate system itself and the resilience of our society to climate change.
2016
Because climate-related and weather-related risks have always been present, governments and private parties have fairly well established institutional, governance and policy frameworks to build resilience in our built environment.
2016
Given that values are what distinguish heritage places from other places, the resilience of heritage places may be understood as their ability to experience shocks while retaining their heritage values.
2016
Resilience is a key underpinning principle of biodiversity strategies at all levels of government.
2016
Resilient land should be able to recover from changes, and continue to support native vegetation and natural processes, as well as allow us to use natural resources within reasonable limits.
2016
Since 2011, environmental flows (managed freshwater flows in natural water systems, designed to maintain aquatic ecosystems) have contributed to the ecological resilience of the Murray–Darling Basin.
2016
The resilience of the coast varies markedly between areas and habitats.
2016
Current understanding of the resilience of Australia’s marine environment is limited because it is difficult to monitor the environment across timescales relevant for assessing resilience.
2016
Natural disturbances are part of life in Antarctic ecosystems, and the native species can generally survive shock events because they have evolved strategies that allow their populations to rebuild after mass mortalities.
2016
It is clear from SoE 2016 that some parts of Australia’s environment are not yet being managed sustainably.
2016
The outlook described above has both positive and negative components, although the negative tends to dominate.
2016
An ‘improved future’ scenario for Australia’s environment would see innovation in policy, technical and associated management approaches to:
2016
Our natural environment makes human life possible. It is therefore essential that our population and economic growth are environmentally sustainable.
2016
Jackson WJ, Argent RM, Bax NJ, Bui E, Clark GF, Coleman S, Cresswell ID, Emmerson KM, Evans K, Hibberd MF, Johnston EL, Keywood MD, Klekociuk A, Mackay R, Metcalfe D, Murphy H, Rankin A, Smith DC, Wienecke B (2016). Overview: Topics. In: Australia state of the environment 2016, Australian Government Department of the Environment and Energy, Canberra, https://soe.environment.gov.au/theme/overview/topics, DOI 10.4226/94/58b65510c633b
Dr William Jackson (Chief author)
Ms Alex Rankin
