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Data Reporting System

This Data Reporting System (DRS) contains data and information collected for 2006 state of the environment reporting (SoE 2006). It was compiled by the then Department of the Environment and Heritage at the request of the 2006 Australian State of the Environment Committee. The DRS was used to inform and support the SoE 2006 report, Australia State of the Environment 2006 (SoE2006).

The data and information collected were selected in order to inform on a range of environmental issues that were considered critical to understanding the state of the environment.

For each issue, indicators were selected. An indicator is an aspect of an issue that is measurable and that in some way represents a key element of the selected issue.

The issues are grouped into eight themes (see below). Many similar issues appear under different themes and the same indicators often inform on a range of different issues within and across themes.

Data or information are presented, where available, for each indicator and there are web links to broader data sets from which the data are drawn and, where possible, to the information sources themselves.

Where nationally consistent data were unavailable, or where a meaningful indicator for an issue could not be identified, case studies or examples from smaller areas and current research concerning the issue are reported.

The Data Reporting System reports data and information from a variety of sources and all data sources are acknowledged.

Themes

The division of the critical environmental issues into eight themes is an arbitrary tool for making the information more manageable. Although there are many overlaps between them, the themes provide a starting point to find data and information.

• Human settlements 
• Atmosphere 
• Biodiversity 
• Coasts and oceans 
• Inland waters 
• Land 
• Natural and cultural heritage 
• Australian Antarctic Territory 

Each theme page includes a list of the issues that are considered relevant to the theme.

Issues

The list of the critical issues which appears under each theme provides links to pages which explain why we need to know about the issue.

Each issues page also includes a list of indicators for the issue, and explains why they are considered to inform on the issue.

Each indicator in the list provides a link to the indicator page.

Indicators

The environmental indicator pages contain all the data that were obtained in the course of compiling SoE 2006.

Data were obtained for many but not all of the environmental indicators, although few of the data obtained were continental in scale or otherwise comprehensive.

Data were collected from accessible internet sites, from published reports, from Australian Government agencies, from jurisdictions and from scientific agencies. Almost all the data brought together in this DRS have been previously published.

As well as being accessible via the themes and issues, there is also a full:

• index of indicators 

Each indicator page contains the following information:

• the data
• what do the data mean?
• data limitations
• issues for which this is an indicator and why
• further information

Acknowledgment

Thanks to the Resource Planning and Development Commission, Tasmania for allowing the Department to use this application, originally developed for Tasmanian State of the Environment reporting.

Changes to DRS documents since December 2006

The environmental indicator pages underpin SoE 2006 and are static. They will not be altered to include subsequent data, other than by the addition of further links (under "Further Information"), should these become available. However, any errors found in the 2006 indicator pages will be corrected as they come to light. Where these errors involve a change in the data reported, or the interpretation of the data, a note will be added to the indicator page explaining the change and the reason for it. Where the change is significant, a link to the previous version of the indicator will be maintained.