Innovations in Resource Assessment in Australia Warwick McDonald1, Stewart Noble1, Chris Moran2, Mike Raupach2 1 National Land and Water Resources Audit GPO Box 2182 Canberra ACT 2602 AUSTRALIA Phone +61 2 6257-3067 Fax: +61 2 6257-9518 Email:
[email protected];
[email protected] 2 CSIRO Land and Water GPO Box 1666 Canberra ACT 2601 AUSTRALIA Email:
[email protected];
[email protected]
Presented at SIRC 2000 - The 12th Annual Colloquium of the Spatial Information Research Centre University of Otago, New Zealand December 10-13th 2000
ABSTRACT The Australian [National] Land and Water Resources Audit (the Audit) is an Australian government initiative of the Natural Heritage Trust that provides nationwide assessments of Australia’s land, vegetation and water resources. By June 2001 the Audit will deliver a national information system to support more rigorous natural resource management policy development, evaluation and decision making specifically targeted to meet the needs of Commonwealth, State and Territory activities. The Audit will provide an integrated report on biophysical, social and economic factors relevant to natural resource management, link resource condition and trend with resource management practice, and to deliver both data and information in an integrated manner. An environmental process-based approach has been adopted to deliver these integrated outputs. Major challenges to achieving these outputs include variable spatial scales, methods of spatial analysis and data quality. The development and implementation of data management protocols and standards has been essential. The Audit will operationalise and test ANZLIC's Australian Spatial Data Infrastructure initiative at the national level. The Audit uses Internet-tools to communicate its data and information products. Use of dynamic mapping or online GIS technologies provides users with interactivity and a capacity to undertake rudimentary GIS analysis and map making. The Audit is a 5 year program of focused activity. As such it is important that the outputs and methods developed through the Audit activities are maintained and enhanced into the future. The negotiation of data management arrangements for post Audit activity is therefore crucial. Sponsorship and custodianship roles for the Audit data are being defined and negotiated in partnership with Australia lead natural resource management agencies. This paper broadly details the activities and challenges being faced by the Audit and the solutions to overcome them.
Keywords and phrases: Environmental processes; Web; Online GIS; Integration; Data Protocols; Agreements
1
THE AUSTRALIAN LAND AND WATER RESOURCES AUDIT
The Australian [National] Land and Water Resources Audit (the Audit) is providing a nationwide assessment of Australia’s land, vegetation and water resources and fostering more rigorous natural resource management decision making by collating and making readily data and information available. The Audit’s Strategic Plan identifies fourteen key challenges facing natural resource management in Australia. The priority natural resource management issues are grouped into seven themes: water availability; dryland salinity; vegetation; rangelands monitoring; agricultural productivity and sustainability; capacity to implement change; and ecosystem health. The focus for these Audit themes is to place the status and trend in resource condition in the context of current management response and to identify options for remedial action, resource development and protection – recognising that natural resource management includes biophysical, social and economic components. The Audit is building an Australia-wide information base to help natural resource managers in the areas of policy assessment and development, investment decisions, evaluation of program and policy performance and on-ground resource management, particularly by national, State and Territory government agencies. The Government recognises that the Audit data also have value for Local Government, rural industries, community groups, and a range of other government and non-government organisations. Where possible, the Audit is providing data to assist planning at the catchment and regional level. Several characteristics differentiate the Audit from previous resource inventory exercises in Australia. These include requirements to report holistically on biophysical, social and economic factors relevant to natural resource management, to link resource condition and trend with resource management practice and to deliver both data and information in an integrated manner. Underpinning all Audit activities are data management principles and protocols that facilitate on-going access to management-relevant geo-referenced data and information. To achieve its objectives the Audit is implementing a data management infrastructure for natural resources data through the Australian New Zealand Land Information Council's Australian Spatial Data Infrastructure initiative.
2
TOWARDS INTEGRATION
A key challenge for the Audit is to provide integrated assessments across the environmental, social and economic dimensions of natural resource management that are relevant to Commonwealth (national) and State and Territory activities. This provides a series of challenges in terms of spatial scale, methods of analysis and data availability. A spatially-explicit, process-based approach to resource assessment has been adopted to deliver these integrated outputs. Guiding Principles for Integration 1.
Information products must meet a specified purpose and user needs.
2.
Data products will be in forms that facilitate combining and comparing data across biophysical, social and economic dimensions.
3.
Tools and methods must provide access to simply manipulate Audit data products.
4.
A landscape process-based approach will be used to characterise and assess natural resource status and condition.
5.
A range of views of the Audit data products must be provided to facilitate different user interpretations.
In the context of these guiding principles, integration for the Audit outputs takes the form of: Accessible multi-layered data products – Through the Australian Natural Resources Atlas as a common interface, users can visually compare and query biophysical, social and economic spatial data.
Data access protocols – Integration of data occurs through a network of natural resource data. The Audit’s activities pilot the development of an Australia-wide distributed system. In time this will provide public access to a wide range of data to allow users to seek answers to a range of multidisciplinary issues. Fundamental national data bases have been developed in collaboration with the States and Territories for vegetation (Native Vegetation Information System), soil attribute mapping (Australian Soil Resources Information System) and economic and social attributes. These are designed to allow comparison of data across disciplines and allow integrated products to be developed. New information products will be produced, derived by spatial modelling and interpretation. For example, sediment sources and sinks across Australian landscapes will be able to be linked to other data to provide integrated products. Management-oriented information products – Audit Theme work plans have been designed to assess the status and, where possible, trend of Australia's natural resource base and to apply this information to identify management priorities and actions. Multidisciplinary process-based approach to resource assessment. The catchment condition, waterway and estuary projects within the Ecosystem Health Theme demonstrate the use of a process-based approach to integrate natural resource attributes. Effective natural resource management will take account of the whole system—from catchment head to estuary mouth. Figure 1 demonstrates the links between catchment, waterway and estuary. By approaching assessment in this manner more likely to understand the causes and not simply address the symptoms. The next section presents three major (in progress) modelling activities being undertaken by the Audit. Estimation of soil properties, water borne erosion/sediment movement and net primary productivity has been resolved spatially at a landscape and catchment (basin) scales.
Landscape Process Based Integration of Natural Resources Data Catchment
Waterway
Estuary
Condition Soil properties Land use and productivity Vegetation cover and condition Digital Elevation Models Climate Surfaces Water quantity (surface / ground) INFORM Land management practice Land use condition
Condition AusRivAS macroinvertebrates Sediment loads Water quality Flow regimes Nutrient fluxes (Riparian vegetation)
Condition Sediments Biota-flora Biota-fauna Physical/ chemical quality Tidal and fresh water flows
Processes Sediment transport Nutrient movement (N/P) Carbon/biomass productivity Catchment hydrology Groundwater systems
Processes Physical / chemical process Nutrient assimilation systems Bed load transport systems
Implications for waterway management
INFORM Processes Estuary functional types / drivers Tidal and freshwater inputs
Implications for estuary management
Implications for catchment management
Integrated NRM
Catchment Management Priorities
Waterway Management Priorities
Marine systems managemen t
Estuary Management Priorities
Figure 1 Landscape process-based approach to integration
3 3.1
APPLICATION OF SPATIAL KNOWLEDGE Australian Soil Resources Information System
The Bureau of Rural Sciences, CSIRO Land and Water in partnership with the State and Territory resource assessment agencies have developed the Australian Soil Resources Information Systems [ASRIS] (Johnstone, 1998). It contains a set of spatial estimates of soil attributes and their uncertainty at 250 m resolution, for the measurement, modelling, and prediction of land degradation impacts, system sustainability, and productivity. To date the best coverage of soils information national was the Atlas of Australian Soils (at a scale of 1:2,000,000) which was completed in 1968 by CSIRO. As part of the scoping phase of the Audit, McKenzie and Chartres (1998) detailed the data and information required to undertake credible national assessments of soil quality and resource condition – this lead to the initiation of the ASRIS project. ASRIS builds on the techniques developed as part of the Murray Darling Soil Information System (Bui et al. 1998). Attributes estimated include: permeability, available water capacity, pH, soil nutrient status, percentage clay, soil texture, bulk density, erodibility, structural stability, solum depth and thickness of A- and B-horizons. The process for estimation of soil properties (Figure 2) includes: 1.
generating empirical models for each soil property from the soil point data;
2.
spatial extension of these models using environmental predictor variables including soil polygon data and spatial non-soil attributes such as topographic variables derived from the 9" (250m) digital elevation model, climate surfaces and remotely sensed imagery; and
3.
assessment of the precision and accuracy of the models.
In most cases, it was possible to derive attributes at a finer grain than traditional soil map polygons. Where an attribute has not been measured directly, the available information is interpreted to estimate those attributes. The point data in State, Territory and Commonwealth databases are the core data for estimation of soil properties. The effectiveness of this analysis depends on access to sufficient information and the quality of the databases. A statement of reliability and certainty is attached to estimates of each attribute to reflect the source of the information and the nature of the analyses (and necessary assumptions) that were required to derive its value.
Quality assurance points
Quality assurance soil polygons
Polygon transfer standard
Discards
SITES Data Standard
Soil polygon database Spatial non-soil attributes e.g. DEM,…
Point database
Points for modelling properties
Preparation of environmental prediction variables
Point sampling
Environmental variables and soil attributes for each point
Attribute model generation
Points for validating accuracy of spatial prediction
Model for Spatial extension of models
Model xfor property property Modelxfor property x
Spatial surface Spatial for x forSpatial property surface property x surface for property x
Figure 2: Process for estimation of soil properties
Quantify spatial accuracy
Discards
3.2
Nutrient Fluxes in Australian Landscapes
CSIRO Land and Water is undertaking an assessment of landscape productive capacity and environmental nutrient fluxes, through the provision of information on the balances of water, nutrients and carbon at regional and basin scales (Raupach and Kirby, 1998; Reuter et al, 1999). 1. Determination of landscape productive capacity and its changes with landscape degradation: The ability of our landscapes to support human use is largely determined by levels or stores of critical, limiting natural resources: water, nutrients and carbon. These levels are set by the balance of natural and human-induced inflows and outflows, as influenced by changes in land cover and by climate variability. This project will determine the productive capacity of the landscape in terms of amount and nature of plant biomass, by quantifying the inflows and outflows of water, carbon and nutrients for a landscape. The project also estimates the likely changes in productive capacity induced by long-term land degradation or by changes in land use (taking account of the noise introduced by natural climate variability). This provides a direct, quantified link between biophysical estimates of states and changes in land condition, and natural resource assessments in economic terms. 2. Characterisation of Environmental Nutrient Fluxes: Many of the nutrient fluxes in farming landscapes are directly associated with various forms of land degradation. Fluxes of nitrogen and phosphorus are particularly important. These N and P fluxes occur by sediment movement (both waterborne and windborne), by transport in solution (vertically through leaching and horizontally through surface and subsurface runoff), and by gaseous exchange (in the case of N). The resulting land degradation processes occur both on-site and off-site. Two major examples of their consequences are: •
Soil acidity: leaching of N generates soil acidity which is a major cause of lost agricultural production, estimated to be limiting the yield of crops on more than 14 million hectares especially in higher rainfall areas. Decreases in soil pH influence nutrient availability, crop rooting depth, legume nodulation, and the effectiveness of P fertilisers, in turn reducing productivity and the economic sustainability of farming systems.
•
Sources for riverine nutrient loads: off-site movement from land sources accounts for the bulk of N and P in Australian rivers.
This project addresses these major land degradation processes by determining the magnitudes of environmental nutrient fluxes, their significance relative to farm fluxes by fertiliser application and harvest, and the ways that they are altered by changed land use and management. 3. Landscape Water Balance: Both landscape productive capacity and environmental nutrient fluxes are driven to a large extent by the landscape water balance, because water is both a limiting natural resource in most Australian landscapes and the driving fluid for most environmental fluxes. To quantify the landscape balances of carbon and nutrients, it is essential to also determine the spatial and temporal patterns of the landscape water balance caused by natural factors of landform and climate, and by human-induced land use changes. In all three of the above areas it is important that water, carbon and nutrient balances are spatially explicit, since the variations in topography, land use and soil type which drive the local balances are at fine (hillslope) spatial scales. It is also important to work across large regions, up to basin and continental scales, for two reasons: first, the characterisation of off-site effects of land management actions. Off-site effects associated with sediment movement will be dealt with in the project on sediment and nutrient movement, but the current project will provide them with information about regional scale water budgets and the impact of land management. Second, we need large-scale overviews of land and water sustainability for the direction of public investment in the maintenance of the national estate (for instance on-ground works, incentives).
3.3
Water borne Sediment Transport
CSIRO Land and Water is spatially modelling (base resolution - 250 m digital elevation model) erosion processes to estimate the sources and sinks of water-borne sediments across more than 2 million km2 of the Australian landscape (Prosser and Moran, 1998; Reuter et al, 1999). Using a national synoptic overview of the intensively used areas of Australia CSIRO Land and Water will:
1.
2.
3.
4. 5.
identify where land use management: • creates significant erosion hazard degrading land productivity; • delivers sediment and absorbed nutrients to streams; and • creates substantial risk of degrading water quality and in-stream ecosystems. identify the significance of: • hillslope erosion and deposition of sediment and sorbed nutrient; • gully and channel erosion. quantify the hierarchy of the inherent hazard associated with: • topography; • soil nutrient status, texture and erodibility; and • climate variability, magnitude and intensity. assess the risk associated with land use practise. provide interpretation of the types of management intervention that may assist mitigation of sediment transport and delivery where there is a high risk of detrimental impact.
The processes of erosion and sediment delivery are quantifiable in terms of sediment transport down hillslopes, and out of gullies and stream banks, to transport through the catchment via the stream network. There are several significant factors controlling the quantity of sediment and nutrient transported. Those associated with natural processes that pose an inherent hazard are topography, soil (nutrient status, erodiblity and texture) and climate (variability and intensity). The risk beyond these factors, and the only factor we can effectively control through improved management, is land use. This project will provide assessments of the contributions of each of these factors for all major catchments in the intensive land use areas of Australia. The degree to which alteration of land use can be used to control sediment and nutrient transport will thereby be assessed. The aim is to develop scenario maps that increase sequentially in complexity. The initial approach will be to assess sediment delivery hazard based on topography; then incorporate soil and climatic information; include nutrients and sediment sorting and finally include land use to compare inherent hazard with real risk of pollution. To spatially assess sediment delivery hazard across areas of 104 km2 and more, using the highest resolution of available data (250 m), requires substantial computer power. This necessitates relatively simple sediment transport rules, but they should be based on physical principles so that there is a rational basis for extrapolation across diverse environments where detailed empirical data are unavailable. To have faith in the results, the transport rules and outputs must be consistent with the scale and quality of input data. Simplifications of the physics of sediment transport must concentrate on retaining the factors most critical to spatial variability in sediment transport at catchment to national scales.
4
INFORMATION DELIVERY - THE AUDIT'S ATLAS AND DATA LIBRARY
4.1
Australian Natural Resources Atlas
The Audit released Version 1 of the Australian Natural Resources Atlas in May 2000 - See www.nlwra.gov.au/atlas. Version 2 was released in November. The Atlas provides a web-based public interface to all the data and information prepared by the Audit. The Atlas serves several important functions: •
To provide ready access to information about the status and trends in Australia's natural resources.
•
To provide management relevant data and information to support the core business functions of Commonwealth, State and Territory agencies.
•
To present Commonwealth, State and Territory agencies position statements on key natural resource management issues and to document their management of those issues.
•
To link and integrate topic data and information by geography. Users of the Atlas can navigate through the Audit's data and information by selecting a topic (e.g. surface water quantity) and geography (e.g. AWRC Basin).
•
To provide a dynamic query and mapping facility for the preparation of publication quality user-constructed report and map-based products.
The software products being used for the Atlas development link directly with the Data Library thereby avoiding duplication of data and streamlining the update process.
4.2
Data Library
The Audit's data library underpins the Atlas. The data library is a set of linked database that stores data and metadata. Procedures and mechanisms are embedded in the databases to ensure that the most up to date data is displayed and accessible via the Atlas. The data library stores all data including spatial data and embedded objects such as images. A key challenge for the Audit has been to develop data structures and presentation methods that allow an internetbased Natural Resources Atlas and data library that allow users to easily: •
locate natural-resources data and information;
•
display this information in map, images (eg. graphs, photos) and text (eg. tables, spreadsheets) forms;
•
print results of the mapping; and
•
carry out low-level mapping and data analysis.
Initially, the library provides: •
an archive for derived and enhanced spatial data and related data and information products (images, text, reports, etc.) produced from Audit projects;
•
access to data required by Audit projects for further processing and analysis; and
•
public access to selected data through the Australian Spatial Data Directory and the Natural Resources Atlas.
The Australian Natural Resources Atlas uses on-line mapping technologies for display, some manipulation and delivery of the data and information products. An outline of the Australian Natural Resources Atlas is provided in Attachment 1.
5
IMPLEMENTING A DISTRIBUTED NATIONAL INFORMATION SYSTEM
A centralised data library and atlas is very difficult to maintain in the long-term - issues of currency and update are significant. After the Audit concludes, and data continue to be updated by custodians, the data will quickly become out-of-date. Consistent with the development of an Australian Spatial Data Infrastructure it is planned that, as standards evolve, the data library and Atlas be linked to data services maintained by Commonwealth, State and Territory custodian agencies. This will help ensure that the community has access to the most up-to-date natural resource management data across jurisdictions. The de-centralisation of the Audit Data Library and Atlas has occurred in three phases: Stage 1 - Linking spatial data to reports The first version of the Natural Resources Atlas demonstrates the linking of spatial data to reports and images available over the Internet. For example, a user selecting the Myall Lakes wetland on a map, then links through an Internet reference to a document maintained by another data custodian, eg http://environment.gov.au/wetlands/wet_report.html?listitem=52 Stage 2 – Linking Australian Spatial Data Directory nodes to data download facilities
As custodians and up-date arrangements for Audit data products are identified, they are encouraged to make available the products for download through their node of the Australian Spatial Data Directory. This helps ensure that the community has on-going access to up-to-date data. Stage 3 – Linking spatial data servers The Audit's Internet map service developed using the ESRI ArcIMS software is published and viewable with data published by other map services. using software such as ArcExplorer or Arc/INFO version 8. As standards for Open Geographic Information Systems evolve and are adopted by ANZLIC, the Audit will implement these in the data library and Natural Resources Atlas to ensure that the Audit's Internet map service is viewable by a wider range of software. Standards are unlikely to be in place until 2001. Implementation of distributed on-line mapping applications will commence in 2001/02 of the Audit program.
6
CONCLUSIONS
The Australian National Land and Water Resources Audit delivers an integrated assessment of the biophysical, social and economic aspects of Australia's natural resource base. The increasing demands of Government, industry, regional and community groups alike for more precise, accurate and spatially-explicit assessments required the Audit to adopt a process-based approach. Understanding of the key driving processes and providing a capacity to pose what if questions in a spatial context is essential for Australia as it faces some significant resource challenges, such as dryland salinity. The application of spatial knowledge and the dissemination of this knowledge in readily understood formats (as information products) is a critical component of the Audit activities. Long-term (post-Audit) arrangements for management of the Data Library and the Australian Natural Resources Atlas will be critical to ensure the on-going usefulness of the Audit data sets, models and information infrastructure.
7
ATTACHMENT 1 - OVERVIEW OF THE AUSTRALIAN NATURAL RESOURCES ATLAS
The Australian Natural Resources Atlas provides ready access to information to support natural resource management. The Atlas is being developed to involve a broad cross section of government and private sector groups working and interested in natural resource management issues. The Atlas is being accessed and used by managers and community groups to help in their planning and management activities.
7.1
Exploring the data
The information in the Atlas is organised by subject and by geography. By subject: •
Theme of interest, eg water, soil, vegetation, and
•
Topic of interest, eg surface water (quantity or quality), soil quality
By geography: •
Whole of Australia
•
State / Territory
•
Region - eg surface water basins, bioregions, statistical local areas
To find the information you require in the Atlas, simply select your topic of interest from the pull down menu at the top of the page, and then select your geographical area of interest on subsequent pages.
In this example, a user has generated a report for the surface water topic for Victoria. From here they can get further information about surface water issues for Victoria; go to an online mapping application to explore the data further; or select a basin of interest and get information that is more detailed eg flow duration curves from a selected gauging station.
For example, this screen shows a more detailed report about development status of surface water in Victoria.
If instead, the user wanted to find out more information about a surface water basin of interest, they could use the navigation menu or map to select a basin of interest. In this case, the user has generated a report for the Corangamite basin.
Navigation is easy. A user can call up another basin, or State, of interest from the drop-down menus at any point in the Atlas. Users can switch to an equivalent page in another basin (or State) making comparisons quick and easy. In this case, the user has switched to the Snowy basin.
At any stage, as users move through the Atlas, they can explore the information in more detail through an interactive Internet mapping tool by clicking on the mapping icon. The mapping tool allows users to users to:
Here the user has 'zoomed-in' to a part of the Snowy basin, and is displaying data about its current development status, some stream gauge sites, and major wetlands of national importance.
•
select data layers to map;
•
move about the map by zooming in and out, and panning across the map;
•
query the data to find features of interest; and
•
link to other information such as reports, graphs and pictures
For those wetlands, users can link to further detailed information, available from other sites over the Internet - in this case the Directory of Important Wetlands managed by Environment Australia.
Users can query the database to find other features of interest. In this case, the query box is being used to find 'Lake Hume'.
How is the Atlas being developed? Version one of the Australian Natural Resources Atlas is being developed using: •
Internet map server: ESRI ArcIMS
•
Database: ORACLE 8i with ESRI ArcSDE8
•
Web pages (dynamic HTML): Allaire Cold Fusion
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work would not have been possible without the dedication of a large number of CSIRO Land and Water staff and the spirit of partnership that CSIRO Land and Water has entered into with the National Land and Water Resources Audit to assess Australia’s natural resources.
REFERENCES Bui, E. N., Moran, C. J. and Simon, D. A. P. (1998). New geotechnical maps for the Murray-Darling basin. CSIRO Land and Water Tech. Report. 42/98. Available on the Web: Johnston, R. (1998): The Australian Soil Resources Information System. Australian Collaborative Land Evaluation (ACLEP) Newsletter 7:3 pp.10-13. McKenzie, N. and Chartres, C. (1998). Soil Quality. National Land and Water Resources Audit Method Paper:
Prosser I. and Moran, C. (1998) Impacts of Agricultural Land Use on Water-Born Erosion and Sediment and Nutrient Loads in Streams – a project proposal. Unpublished project proposal to the National Land and Water Resources Audit. (Refer to Reuter et al., 1999) Raupach, M.J. and Kirby J.M. (1998) Living Within Our Means: Landscape Productive Capacity and its Dependence on Balances of Water, Carbon and Nutrients. Unpublished project proposal to the National Land and Water Resources Audit. (Refer to Reuter et al., 1999) Reuter, D.J., Hamblin, A.P. and McDonald, W.S. (1999) Theme 5: Land use change, productivity, diversity, and sustainability of agricultural enterprises. National Land and Water Resources Theme 5 Work Plan.
