Australian Collaborative Rangelands Information System (ACRIS)
About ACRIS
Extreme climatic variability in the rangelands makes it difficult to separate change resulting from seasonal climate variation from that driven by human activities. New ground in documenting change and its causes has been broken by the creation of the Australian Collaborative Rangeland Information System (ACRIS), which was first mooted in the 2001 report, Tracking Changes in the Rangelands .
The ACRIS represents a new and important contribution to rangeland management and capacity to monitor change through scientifically rigorous data and information.
New ACRIS brochure
The Australian Collaborative Rangelands Information System (ACRIS): Reporting Change in the Rangelands
Read about the role and value of the work of ACRIS in this new brochure.
Australian Rangeland Boundaries
Datasets available to download
The rangelands are those areas where the rainfall is too low or unreliable and the soils too poor to support regular cropping. They cover about 80% of Australia and include savannas, woodlands, shrublands, grasslands and wetlands. The rangeland boundary as defined by the ACRIS is based on mapped bioregions and, specifically, those largely undisturbed or natural bioregions (Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia, IBRA version 7.0) within Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales, Queensland and the Northern Territory. The boundary in Queensland was modified according to some local government (i.e. shire) boundaries. The boundary was jointly defined by members of the ACRIS Management Committee and revised by the ACRIS Management Unit based on IBRA v7 mapping.
Rangelands 2008-Taking the Pulse
The data and information produced and interpreted by the ACRIS for the period 1992 to 2005, has been brought together in the report Rangelands 2008-Taking the Pulse, which documents change, as distinct from state, in the rangelands at a national and regional scale.
Updated information
New reports have been completed by ACRIS that provide updates to the information included in the Rangelands 2008-Taking the Pulse report:
- Rangelands Protected Area 2004-2010
- After the Smoke has Cleared: 2011 Fire in Central Australia
- ACRIS Climate Variability Update 2005-2011
- ACRIS Total Grazing Pressure Update - Trends in the Abundance and Distribution of Feral Goats in the Rangelands
- Distribution, abundance and harvesting of feral goats in the Australian rangelands 1984-2011
- ACRIS Landscape Function Update 2006-2010
- ACRIS Critical Stock Forage Update 2006-2010
- ACRIS Dust Product Update 2006-2010
- Update of Dust Storm Index (DSI) maps for 2005 to 2010
- Kangaroo densities in Australian Rangelands 2004-2008
- Livestock Grazing pressure in Australian Rangelands 2003-2008
- Fire extent and frequency in Australian Rangelands 2006-2010
ACRIS Management Committee
The Australian Collaborative Rangeland Information System (ACRIS) is a coordinating mechanism that collates rangeland information from state, Northern Territory and Australian Government agencies and other sources. The ACRIS Management Committee has representatives of Australian, state and territory governments and a management unit co-located with the Desert Knowledge CRC. ACRIS reports to the Audit Advisory Council on issues of information, and Natural Resource Programs and Policy Committee on issues of policy.
For more information please contact ACRIS’ Coordinator
Gary Bastin
Coordinator
ACRIS Management Unit
CSIRO, PO Box 2111
Alice Springs NT 0871
Telephone: 08 89507137
Email: Gary.Bastin@csiro.au
Rangelands
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