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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 region-scale 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 knowledge-base 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

The Environmental Indicators report on biodiversity developed for Australian State of the Environment Reporting (Saunders et al. 1998) stated that:

... a priority for state of the environment reporting should be the production of a consistent vegetation classification system throughout Australia, which should include marine vegetation; mangroves, seagrasses and macroalgae. The classification should be hierarchical, with lower-level classes (local and subregional) nested within higher-level classes (regional and continental). If local-scale classifications, capable of being agglomerated hierarchically, existed across the continent, national reporting and monitoring could be made wholly compatible and consistent with reporting and monitoring at the local government scale. A national classification should incorporate both structure and floristics, with floristics as attributes at lower levels. Higher-level classes based on structural attributes could be mapped at the IBRA or IMCRA region, or even national, scale and lower level classes could be mapped at more local scales.

They concluded that:

Many existing local and subregional scale classifications are likely to be amenable to agglomeration into higher-level classes such as structural types. The first step in producing a consistent national-level classification is a study to assess the feasibility of such a classification, including the compatibility of existing classifications and their suitability for higher-level agglomeration.

The National Forest Inventory developed agreed standards and protocols for compiling, analysing and reporting forest types over the last decade. These standards and protocols formed one of the inputs in developing the guidelines for the National Vegetation Information System. The precedent set by the National Forest Inventory in developing an agreed set of 64 forest types has enabled forest vegetation across Australia to be compiled and reported for the last decade.

Information capacity limited: prior to Australian Native Vegetation Assessment 2001 the only available Australia-wide data of Australia's native vegetation was compiled by J.A. Carnahan and published in Volume 6 of the Atlas of Australian Resources (AUSLIG 1990). These maps are a snapshot of vegetation at a national scale based on interpreting patterns of vegetation observed in 1980s satellite imagery and are built on the considerable vegetation mapping activities available within the respective State or Territory. They are not suitable for regional level planning.

Mechanisms are now available to:

• maintain and update national and regional level data and information products;
• review user requirements for additional information;
• engage State and Territory vegetation practitioners; and
• ensure the information provided meets the needs of decision makers.

Because of the compatibility between the attribute frameworks that underpin the AUSLIG assessment and reporting of Australia's vegetation, the Audit has translated the mapping using the National Vegetation Information System hierarchy. Figure 1 shows the Australian Land Information Group mapping published at 1:5 000 000 scale, represented by the major vegetation groups classification.

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