Projects to improve standards
There are projects at national and state or territory levels to produce, maintain, review and improve data standards for Australian vegetation information.
National projects
Native vegetation condition in Australia: a synthesis of outcomes from pilot projects on national monitoring and evaluation indicators
A report on monitoring and evaluation indicators for native vegetation condition is now available. The report, produced by the Executive Steering Committee on Australia's Vegetation (ESCAVI), summarises a series of pilot projects to test the applicability of ESCAVI's interim approach to native vegetation condition assessment. The report can be downloaded from http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/publications/escavi-veg-indicators/index.html.
Indicators for native vegetation communities integrity
Indicators have recently been finalised for extent, type and pre-1750 native vegetation. An indicator for vegetation condition is in development and will be trialled in the near future. These indicators are being developed under the National NRM Monitoring and Evaluation Framework, by National Land and Water Resources Audit and ESCAVI.
Contact info@nlwra.gov.au for further information.
State and territory projects
Australian Capital Territory
Vegetation mapping and data collection standards
This project ensures the consistency in vegetation mapping and data collection in surveys in the ACT.
Contact city.management@act.gov.au for further information.
New South Wales
Native vegetation standards
The NSW Government, through the Department of Environment and Climate Change, has commissioned a series of standards pertaining to native vegetation NRM, survey and mapping. All of these standards consider and comply with agreed national standards to the greatest extent possible. The documents are as follows:
- Definition of Native Vegetation (Combined Definition) and Operational Terms for reporting its Extent
- Native Vegetation Extent Standard; Standard A — Detectable Woody Native Vegetation Extent
- Native Vegetation Extent Standard; Standard B — Detectable Native Forest
- Native Vegetation Type Standard
Melaleuca forests and woodlands
Photo: M. Fagg
Queensland
Land condition assessment in Queensland
The Delbessie Agreement (also known as the State Rural Leasehold Land Strategy) is a Queensland framework of legislation, policies and guidelines developed to support the environmentally sustainable productive use of rural leasehold land for agribusiness.
Guidelines for assessing rural leasehold land condition have been developed by the Department of Natural Resources and Water, in collaboration with key stakeholders and released in February 2009.
The land condition assessment includes assessment of vegetation condition, and is available on the Department of Natural Resources and Water web site.
BioCondition assessment methodology
An assessment framework provides a measure of how well a terrestrial ecosystem is functioning for the maintenance of biodiversity values.
- The BioCondition Field Assessment Manual provides a set of site-based attributes to assess a patch of vegetation can be assessed for condition against a benchmark.
- The Reference Sites for BioCondition — Assessment Manual describes the methodology to obtain the benchmark values. The condition of vegetation is often used as a surrogate for the total biodiversity present at a site.
Activities include acquiring benchmarks in Western Queensland, and exploratory work to map condition based on time series imagery.
Contact csc@epa.qld.gov.au for further information.
Survey and Mapping of Regional Ecosystems and Vegetation Communities
A statewide program — with methodology used by the Queensland Herbarium — to survey, classify and map the pre-clearing and remnant extent of vegetation and regional ecosystems.
Contact csc@epa.qld.gov.au for further information.
South Australia
SA Biological Survey method
A method of systematic vegetation surveys in South Australia that is used to inform vegetation mapping work.
Visit www.deh.sa.gov.au for further information.
Northern Territory
Regionalisation in the Northern Territory - a conceptual approach
This report outlines the approaches taken so far and the method that can be used to create a future ecosystem based regionalisation of the Northern Territory.
Quality assessment manual for native vegetation in the Northern Territory - vegetation condition assessment - top end forests and woodlands
This report outlines the approach taken to inform the extent and condition of native vegetation for Top End forests and woodlands. It includes background material, condition attributes, assessment methodology and criteria scoring tables.
Scoping Paper - a finer scale vegetation map for the Northern Territory
This report summaries information developed by a working group to determine the requirements for an possible approaches to the production of a finer scale map of Northern Territory vegetation communities.
Definitive vegetation types of the Northern Territory
This report provides information on the current status of definitive vegetation types that have been developed as part of a framework for a consistent list of vegetation community descriptions in the Northern Territory.
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Eucalypts
Photo: M. Fagg