australian native vegetation assessment 2001 - National Program ...

AUSTRALIAN VEGETATION INFORMATION
FRAMEWORK: the need
Australian Native Vegetation Assessment 2001
presents the first regional level, comprehensive
guidelines for assessing and reporting Australia’s
native vegetation resources, their extent and
change since European settlement.
It highlights examples and applications of the
native vegetation information at scales
appropriate for Australia-wide policy
development and program evaluation, and
reports on the application of the information
framework for:
mapping Australia’s vegetation (including
structural and floristic characteristics and
quality of the mapping); and
documenting sources of vegetation
information.
Lessons of the past: prior to Australian Native
Vegetation Assessment 2001 a number of attempts
were made to develop a consistent, comparable
and Australia-wide approach to native vegetation
mapping and compilation through forums such
as Australian Biological Resources Study. Some
major compilation activities focused on
describing or delineating the occurrence of
vegetation associations found in Australia
(i.e. Specht et al. 1974, Beadle 1981, AUSLIG
1990, Specht & Specht 1999) or a summary
overview of Australia’s vegetation (e.g. Read
1994). While there have been significant
contributions to this goal the impetus for a
national system was generally limited, due to:
a lack of comprehensive agreement and
commitment to a national framework for
describing Australia’s vegetation;
a limited commitment of resources across
Australia;
the availability of efficient information
technologies to store and process the
information; and
a lack of national leadership and short-term
recognition of the benefits, the efficiencies
and effectiveness of such an Australia-wide
system and its application to the broader
discipline of natural resources management.
Other impediments to developing a consistent,
comparable and Australia-wide approach to
vegetation information included:
no sustainable long term vision or
dedicated resources facilitated through a
national coordinator;
protection of individual mapping standards
and classification schemes;
restricted or difficult access to information;
patchy coverage of data suitable for regionscale
decision making; and
the diversity of differing requirements for
vegetation information making the task
complex and multi-client in nature.
Australia-wide vegetation information prior to
the National Vegetation Information System
Limited information capacity reflecting current
status of native vegetation at a range of scales
Reporting mechanisms variable and poorly
coordinated at broader or finer scales
Data management capacity variable and
generally poor limiting capacity to access and
use comparable vegetation data
Data content and quality extremely variable
and often not comparable across mapping areas
or State/Territory boundaries
Limited use made of Australia’s knowledgebase
including the wealth of scientific expertise,
competence and technical capacity to quantify
and describe Australia’s vegetation and the
substantial investment to date in collecting
vegetation data
Upper slopes Mount Bellenden Ker,
Queensland
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