Caring for our Country

Publications and resources

Data, maps and research

This section links to Australian and state and territory governments' online atlases and mapping tools. It also provides information about the management of geographical data, resources for developing reporting tools for natural resource management activities and projects, and access to a range of online databases and search functions.

Atlases

Online atlases allow users to find maps, search the data and create customised maps.

The Australian Natural Resources Atlas provides information about natural resources across Australia. This is based on reports collated under the National Land and Water Resources Audit between 1997 and 2002.

States and territories are developing online atlases to help users find information about natural resources specific to their region.

Spatial data

Spatial, or geographical, data describes a location or any information that can be linked to a location.

The Australian and New Zealand Land Information Council is Australia's Spatial Information Council. It is working with Australian, and state and territory governments to develop the Australian Spatial Data Infrastructure to provide easy and cost effective access to spatial data and services.

The council develops policies on access and pricing, data description, and spatial data management as well as guidelines for data custodians. The Office of Spatial Data Management is coordinating the Australian government's application of these policies, and will also provide links to key Australian government spatial data custodians.

Links and sources for spatial data

Some datasets from these web sites are available for download.

Reporting tools

There are a number of resources available online including databases, reporting tools, and details of research and research in progress related to natural resource management.

For reporting on a project funded by Caring for our Country, go to Monitoring and evaluation.

Natural Resources Information Management Toolkit

The toolkit is designed to assist regional natural resources management groups discover, access, visualise and manage their data and information. It can be used as a text book document, teaching aid or as a series of stand-alone modules, and includes three components:

Environmental reporting tool

This reporting tool allows the user to find information on nationally listed species and ecological communities, wetlands and protected areas, and heritage sites recorded in national databases. The tool searches the environmental databases of the Department of the Environment and Water Resources, and can produce summary reports by region, local government area, postcode or self defined search areas.

Species profile and threats database

This database provides information about species and ecological communities under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. It includes information about the species such as:

The database's search function allows the user to search by name of look through lists of threatened fauna or flora, ecological communities and critical habitats.

Australian Natural Heritage Assessment Tool

The Australian Natural Heritage Assessment Tool (ANHAT) is a map-supported database developed by the Department of the Environment, Water Heritage and the Arts' Heritage Division, to help identify and prioritise areas of Australia for their natural heritage significance - principally biodiversity - based on rigorous comparisons of specific natural values.

Regional biodiversity summaries (link to biodiversity summaries home page) and species lists have been produced by the DEWHA for the Natural Resource Management Spatial Information System using ANHAT for Natural Resource Management Regions. The biodiversity summaries highlight important elements of the biodiversity which are significant from a national perspective and taxa which have a significant proportion of their distribution within the region.

Australian Agriculture and Natural Resources Online database

This database provides access to completed and current research.

Links

Key

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