State of the Environment 2011 (SoE 2011)

Structure of the report

The report comprises 12 chapters:

1: Approach provides an outline of the reporting context, including the legislative requirements and aims for the report, and a description of the methodologies used to make assessments and present results.

2: Drivers explains the three main factors that underpin the major pressures acting on environmental systems: climate change, population growth and economic growth, and looks at the trends in these.

These introductory chapters are followed by nine ‘theme’ chapters. These represent biogeographic or conceptual aspects of the Australian environment: atmosphere, inland water, land, marine environment, Antarctic environment, biodiversity, heritage, built environment and coasts. Each theme chapter provides detailed assessments of the current state, pressures, management responses, resilience, risks and outlooks for that theme.

3: Atmosphere differs from previous reports in that it considers climate change at length—and its implications for the Australian environment—as well as ambient air quality.

4: Inland water looks at the evolving state of water resources in the world’s driest inhabitable continent, in the context of a major drought and a period of ambitious water policy reform.

5: Land considers the state of our soil and vegetation resources, the pressures they face, and issues and priorities for management.

6: Marine environment details the condition of the marine environment; the existing impacts of fisheries, oil and gas extraction and coastal development, and the potential impacts of climate change; and issues around marine management.

7: Antarctic environment looks at the global importance and evolving state of the Antarctic environment, the ongoing changes to marine and terrestrial ecosystems resulting from human activity, and the significance of climate change in the region.

8: Biodiversity summarises the condition of Australia’s living resources and highlights the challenges of management in the context of human dependence on biodiversity for ecosystem services.

9: Heritage deals with the extent and condition of Australia’s rich Indigenous, natural and cultural heritage, the threats each faces from natural and human processes, and the challenges of management.

10: Built environment discusses the state of Australia’s cities and towns, and considers the impacts of population and economic growth, and climate change on our urban environments, and issues of strategic management across jurisdictions in a time of change.

11: Coasts considers the special features of the interface between ocean and land, the challenges to coasts posed by climate change and management responses to pressures on our coastlines.

12: Future reporting describes how environmental information and reporting is evolving to support understanding and decisions.