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Many studies in recent years have been devoted to estimating the per-pixel proportions of three broad classes of materials (e.g., photosynthetic vegetation, non-photosynthetic vegetation and bare soil) using data from multispectral sensors. Oftentimes, the estimated proportions are used to monitor environmental change in both urban and non-urban environments. Many of these papers use proportion estimation methods based on the linear mixture model. Very few of these papers assess the accuracy of their estimators. This paper shows how to produce confidence intervals (CIs) and joint confidence regions (JCRs) for the proportions associated with various linear mixture models. There are two main models, both of which assume that the coefficients in the model are non-negative. The first model assumes that the coefficients sum to 1. The second does not, but uses rescaling of the estimated coefficients to produce estimated proportions. Three variants of these two models are also analysed. JCRs are shown to be particularly informative, because they are typically better at localising the information than CIs are. The methodology is illustrated using examples from Landsat Thematic Mapper data at 1169 locations across Australia, each of which has associated field observations. There is also a discussion about the extent to which the methodology can be extended to hyperspectral data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the results of the ambient air quality NEPM (National Environment Protection Measure) initiated by the National Environment Protection Council (NEPC) in Australia. The overall purpose of the NEPM review is to evaluate the performance of the current NEPM in achieving the desired environmental outcome of the measure. Significantly, the next step in the process will involve the development of a range of Discussion Papers by the Project Team on proposed ways to address specific issues. The next step in the NEPM process will involve the preparation of a draft of the variation and an Impact Statement.

Summary: Wildlife management on a landscape scale is often complex, particularly where different land use practices occur in the same region. This is particularly so for the management of overabundant grazing species (both domestic and native) in a modified landscape, where anthropogenic activities and climatic drivers can influence their distribution and abundance beyond sustainable levels. In Australia's arid rangelands, macropods benefit from pastoral activities including improved pastures, artificial watering points and the removal of apex predators. This paper addresses some of the challenges associated with managing Red Kangaroo (Osphranter rufus) in a conservation context on the privately managed Boolcoomatta Station conservation reserve in the South Australian arid rangelands. We reflect on the history of the region and how anthropogenic activities, associated with an unpredictable climate, have made macropod management so complex. Ecological monitoring at Boolcoomatta Station suggests that, along with the influence of rainfall, grazing by overabundant Red Kangaroo had a negative impact on vegetation and resident avifauna of chenopod plains. Fenced exclosures further demonstrate the grazing impact of Red Kangaroo, with perennial grasses found only where grazing was excluded. The closure of waterpoints (dams) failed to reduce Red Kangaroo impacts on the reserve, despite some evidence that persistence of Red Kangaroo near fenced dams may be reduced in the long term. Results of monitoring and management outcomes at Boolcoomatta highlight the need for an improved framework to manage Red Kangaroo. This should include consideration of improved regional stock management practices in the face of climate change; improving our understanding of the role of apex predators in agricultural landscapes; developing and setting grazing impact thresholds to instigate macropod management; improving and standardizing monitoring methods for assessing impacts; and lastly, consideration of the mental health and social well‐being of land managers in these areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Murray–Darling Basin in south‐eastern Australia contains over 70,000 km2 of wetlands and floodplains, many of which are in poor condition. In response, Australian governments have committed to a major restoration program, the Murray–Darling Basin Plan that includes management of 2,750 Gl of environmental water to protect and restore aquatic ecosystems. The restoration is being undertaken within an adaptive management framework that includes monitoring the outcomes of environmental flows in seven river valleys. This paper provides an overview of the 5‐year monitoring project and some preliminary results. Monitoring design considered the Basin Plan's environmental objectives, conceptual models of ecosystem responses to flow, and an outcomes framework linking flow responses to the environmental objectives. Monitoring indicators includes ecosystem type, vegetation, river metabolism, and fish. Responses are evaluated to identify the contribution of environmental flows to Basin Plan environmental objectives and continual improvements in management. The program is unique in that it seeks to monitor long‐term outcomes of environmental flows at the river basin scale. Despite many challenges, the monitoring has become a key part of the adaptive management of environmental flows in the Murray–Darling Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long-term ecological monitoring is crucial to understanding the complex dynamics of ecosystems, communities, and populations. Despite this, monitoring data are lacking or rare for the vast majority of biodiversity. Here we report the results of 19 years (2003–2022) of continuous annual monitoring of reptile species at Booderee National Park (BNP) on the east coast of south-eastern Australia. We tested the effects of time, habitat type, fire, and climate on detections of five reptile species. Our study revealed declines in detections of two skink species over time (Lampropholis delicata and Ctenotus taeniolatus), which we suspect was partly driven by weather conditions influencing activity of these species. We also identified broad vegetation type associations for two congeneric species with L. delicata being associated with forested sites, and Lampropholis guichenoti associated with more shrubby sites. Our results also demonstrated a clear association between Cryptophis nigrescens and L. delicata and fire, with the probabilities of detection of both species decreasing with time since fire in the short term. At about the midway point of our study (in 2011), we were forced to make a change in the way our data were collected. The change heavily influenced our findings, and so breached the integrity of the time series in our dataset. We acknowledge that a simple but crucial step to mitigate this breach would have been to conduct calibration that allowed subsequent analysis to control for a change in field survey methodology. Whilst improvements in the effectiveness of field survey methods might be possible through new technologies, it is crucial to maintain the integrity of long-term datasets as data collection continues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National ecological restoration standards – produced in 2016 through the collaboration of 13 of Australia's leading ecological restoration organisations – are increasingly influencing practitioners. This paper elucidates two of the Key Principles that underpin standards to encourage highest and best efforts across all sectors and help resolve uncertainty about the role of restoration in a changing world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the lack of adequate economic evidence, water pollution from economic activities in Great Barrier Reef (GBR) catchments is often regarded excessive. In this paper marginal benefits from terrestrial (agricultural) water pollution and associated marginal marine costs from GBR degradation are estimated and used in an optimal control approach to determine optimal levels of water quality. Results, for a case study in the Wet Tropics in Australia, show that locally optimal levels of (fine sediment) water pollution are close to current levels, indicating that increased rates of (agricultural) water pollution lead to a decrease in local economic welfare. Globally optimal levels of water pollution are, however, below current levels, indicating that (inter-) national compensation for beneficial spillovers from reduced GBR degradation can increase global economic welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fire has long been a part of the Australian environment and remains a potent force in shaping the adaptations of species, the dynamics of populations, and the structure of ecological communities. However, the fire regime is changing. Fire seasons are longer, wet vegetation types that do not usually burn are now at risk, and fire intensity and severity are greater than in the recent past. A particularly widespread event occurred in the forest and woodland regions of Australia over the summer of 2019–2020. Termed the "Black Summer" bushfires, remotely sensed data indicate that over 30 million hectares of vegetation were burned, including an unprecedented large area of forest. The extraordinary geographical scale of the Black Summer fires, including the intensity and speed of fire spread, has led to widespread concern about the ecological damage that occurred. Recent estimates suggest that almost three billion vertebrates and up to 240 trillion invertebrates were affected by the fires. Fires were experienced in part of the geographical ranges of 832 vertebrate species and 37 threatened ecological communities, with some of these entities feared to be at risk of extinction. Field assessments of ecological recovery have been slowed by COVID‐19 restrictions and by a diminution in ecological monitoring capacity that occurred before the last fire season. This paper assesses the dire ecological consequences of the Black Summer bushfires and proposes a series of steps to help achieve recovery of biodiversity and mitigate the effects of future mega‐fires. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2021;17:1162–1167. © 2021 SETAC KEY POINTS: Australia's 2019–2020 megafires were of unprecedented geographical scale and severity, burning over 30 million hectares of the nation's forest and woodland estateExpert opinion and modeled assessments indicate that the ecological consequences of the 2019–2020 megafires are severe, but a critical lack of pre‐fire monitoring and post‐fire access to burnt sites due to COVID‐19 restrictions hampered direct quantification of the impacts of the fires on biota.A Biodiversity Bureau with an embedded Bushfire Agency should be established as a matter of priority to integrate data from ecological monitoring programs and ensure improved outcomes for both bushfire management and biodiversity conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subtropical reefs provide an important habitat for flora and fauna, and proper monitoring is required for conservation. Monitoring these exposed and submerged reefs is challenging and available resources are limited. Citizen science is increasing in momentum, as an applied research tool and in the variety of monitoring approaches adopted. This paper aims to demonstrate an ecological assessment and mapping approach that incorporates both top-down (volunteer marine scientists) and bottom-up (divers/community) engagement aspects of citizen science, applied at a subtropical reef at Point Lookout, Southeast Queensland, Australia. Marine scientists trained fifty citizen scientists in survey techniques that included mapping of habitat features, recording of substrate, fish and invertebrate composition, and quantifying impacts (e.g., occurrence of substrate damage, presence of litter). In 2014 these volunteers conducted four seasonal surveys along semi-permanent transects, at five sites, across three reefs. The project presented is a model on how citizen science can be conducted in a marine environment through collaboration of volunteer researchers, non-researchers and local marine authorities. Significant differences in coral and algal cover were observed among the three sites, while fluctuations in algal cover were also observed seasonally. Differences in fish assemblages were apparent among sites and seasons, with subtropical fish groups observed more commonly in colder seasons. The least physical damage occurred in the most exposed sites (Flat Rock) within the highly protected marine park zones. The broad range of data collected through this top-down/bottom-up approach to citizen science exemplifies the projects’ value and application for identifying ecosystem trends or patterns. The results of the project support natural resource and marine park management, providing a valuable contribution to existing scientific knowledge and the conservation of local reefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a robust cooperative distributed task allocation and mission planning system that enables a fleet of a certain class of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) for persistent underwater ecological monitoring and preservation. The proposed system is developed based on a distributed algorithm that optimizes task allocation and mission planning in real-time while considering environmental constraints, sensor capabilities, communication limitations, as well as system failures. A realistic case study of monitoring and control of Crown-Of-Thorns Starfish (COTS) in Australia's Great Barrier is utilized to investigate how the proposed system can contribute to the inspection and eradication of the maximum possible COTS in a limited mission time in the exposure of uncertainty of mission failure caused by internal/external faults. The effectiveness and robustness of our approach are validated through extensive qualitative and quantitative simulations. • The Deliberative and Reactive Planning oversees mission formation, competency-aware task collocation, scanning and omission, cooperation, and failure accommodation and recovery of COTSbot AUVs during the operation. • The proposed distributed cooperative system enhances fault tolerance compared to centralized systems. • The architecture offers a truly scalable system that can incrementally adapt to the number of AUVs without requiring redesign or adjustment of system parameters while ensuring no overlap in AUV operations. • The system contributes to enhancing situational awareness by allowing robots to share data and information, providing a more comprehensive picture of the mission environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental monitoring is an essential feature of environmental assessment and natural resource management. Whilst the focus of monitoring programs is often on the response of chosen variables to a disturbance of particular concern, it is also important to consider the variability of disturbance pressures in relation to the variability of the ecosystem state. In this paper, we discuss the need to relate environmental variability to disturbance variability in small-scale monitoring programs designed to assess the impact of short-term pulses of visitors on the condition of aquatic ecosystems in protected areas. We use data from protected areas from six Koppen climate zones in Australia to highlight the fact that peaks in visitation do not always coincide with existing monitoring protocols or with optimal times for monitoring on the basis of environmental variability, particularly in relation to rainfall and temperature and, hence, likely biological activity. We highlight how recognising the interaction between disturbance variability and environmental variability will greatly enhance the power of monitoring programs and substantially improve our capacity to detect responses to temporally pulsed disturbances. Analyses of this type, undertaken before the establishment of monitoring programs, will yield higher quality information and a better return on monitoring investment for natural resource managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Roof stability in gateroads is a long-standing issue in many of the underground mines in Australia that use longwall extraction methods, due primarily to a significant increase of vertical stresses ahead of the longwall face. Although numerous studies have been done in the past, the process of roof rock deformation and breakage prior to and during a roof failure in an actual mining environment is still being debated. This paper describes a new integrated roof monitoring system and the results from applying this system in an Australian underground coal mine. The system integrates displacement, stress and seismic monitoring. It has been applied to two roadways in an Australian underground coal mine during two field experiments. The key roof behaviour identified by the integrated monitoring package during the two field monitoring experiments is reported and discussed in this paper. The experiments were conducted in the “tailgate” roadways that are adjacent to the caved zone, or “goaf”, of the previously mined panels. It was found in the experiments that, prior to roof falls, roof displacement accelerates whereas the horizontal stresses reduce. Seismic activity intensifies before major roof displacement or stress changes are evident, and subsides in the later stage of roof failure when large roof displacement is visible. The seismic resonance frequencies decrease during roof failure development. The field monitoring studies have also identified a number of quantitative and site-specific roof fall precursors potentially useful for roof fall prediction and prevention. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Conservation monitoring in Australia has assumed increasing importance in recent years, as societal pressure to actively manage environmental problems has risen. More resources than ever before are being channelled to the task of documenting environmental change. Yet the field remains crippled by a pervasive lack of rigour in analysing, reporting and responding to the results of data collected. Millions of dollars are currently being wasted on monitoring programmes that have no realistic chance of detecting changes in the variables of interest. This is partly because detecting change in ecological systems is a genuinely difficult technical and logistical challenge. However, the failure to plan, fund and execute sophisticated analyses of monitoring data and then to use the results to improve monitoring methods, can also be attributed to the failure of professional ecologists, conservation practitioners and bureaucrats to work effectively together. In this paper, we offer constructive advice about how all parties involved can help to change this situation. We use three case studies of recent monitoring projects from our own experience to illustrate ways in which the disconnect between science and bureaucracy can be bridged and some obstacles to collecting and analysing ecologically meaningful data sets can be overcome. We urge a continuing discussion on this issue and hope to stimulate a change in the culture of conservation monitoring in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the approach and methods used, and the outputs generated, in the derivation of numeric biological objectives for the protection of rivers and streams across Victoria, Australia. Biological objectives have been designed for inclusion in State government legislation for the protection of the State’s waterways. The objectives were developed using data from extensive macroinvertebrate sampling of multiple reference sites across the State. Regional variations are incorporated into the objective-setting process by using an a priori, macroinvertebrate-based regionalisation of the State. The objectives consist of four separate components, including a measure of diversity, two biotic indices and a measure of community composition. The objectives are designed for use across broad regions and any attempt to extend the system to subregional levels would require a careful consideration of the influence of scale upon the grouping of reference sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper presents the results of a detailed study of environmental impact monitoring (EIM) in South Australia by first establishing a context for EIM in the form of a literature review, and by then conducting a detailed content and practice analysis on EIA documents and on actual monitoring in practice. EIM in practice for specific projects was found to not correspond with either EIM proposals in the corresponding environmental impact statement, or EIM recommendations in the government''s assessment report. EIM programmes appeared to be carried out at the discretion of the proponent, and no projects were found to have environmental impact monitoring that directly corresponded to either proposals in the EIS or recommendations in the assessment report. Reasons for this lack of correlation have been postulated to be a combination of a serious lack of the following factors: clearly assigned monitoring responsibilities, public accountability, clearly outlined monitoring timeframes, clearly outlined aims and objectives, lack of human resources, and lack of any EIM legislation. It should be noted that the study, upon which this paper is predominantly based, was undertaken in 1998. This study looked at developments that were approved (and subsequently built) under the Planning Act 1982. This Act was later replaced by the South Australian Development Act 1993. Relevant information from this study that has been reproduced in this paper was accurate at that time. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Monitoring provides important feedback on how social and environmental systems are tracking and whether or not human activities, including management activities, are having an impact. This paper describes an approach applied to develop an integrated monitoring framework to inform adaptive management of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area, a complex, multi-jurisdictional, multi-sectoral marine system of international importance. It identifies the gaps and opportunities to integrate the existing long-term, short-term and compliance-related monitoring and reporting initiatives to provide the information for more effective and efficient (adaptive) management of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area. And as importantly it aligns expectations among different agencies about how monitoring will inform management. Fifty two high priority values, processes and pressures for management were identified along with 65 existing monitoring programs. Developing the monitoring framework was useful in several ways. First it brought together scientists, policy-makers, managers, and other interested stakeholders with different agendas, philosophies and incentives and established a common purpose, lexicon and language for an integrated monitoring program. Second, it highlighted the importance and usefulness of qualitative conceptual models as a framework for focused discussion around a set of hypotheses with relevance for management. Third, the process started an important conversation about defining and setting a realistic number of monitoring priorities for management. Finally, it has provided direction for how to build on existing initiatives to develop an integrated monitoring program for a globally significant world heritage area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Report cards that are designed to monitor environmental trends have the potential to provide a powerful communication tool because they are easy to understand and accessible to the general public, scientists, managers and policy makers. Given this functionality, they are increasingly popular in marine ecosystem reporting. We describe a report card method for seagrass that incorporates spatial and temporal variability in three metrics—meadow area, species and biomass—developed using long-term (greater than 10 years) monitoring data. This framework summarises large amounts of spatially and temporally complex data to give a numeric score that provides reliable comparisons of seagrass condition in both persistent and naturally variable meadows. We provide an example of how this is applied to seagrass meadows in an industrial port in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area of north-eastern Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citizen science continues to make a substantial contribution to a wide variety of scientific disciplines by allowing the public to be involved in activities like idea generation, study design, and data collection and analysis. Although the pace of citizen science has exploded in recent decades, there remains untapped potential for scientific output through investment in research infrastructure (RI) that more specifically supports citizen science activities. Here, we provide a case study of how the biodiversity RI, the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) has supported the growth of citizen science over the past decade by improving access to and utility of citizen science data and products, resulting in around 50% of the 115 million records in ALA coming from citizen scientists. We show that around one quarter of data collection projects provide around half of all species observation records in the ALA, supplementing specimen-based data to provide a more comprehensive picture of species distributions in Australia. We then discuss how RI, like the ALA, supports common citizen science data challenges by implementing tools to standardise complex data, to safely store sensitive data, and to improve participation and discoverability of citizen science data. Our findings demonstrate the importance of investment in open access research infrastructure to support and augment the scientific value of the citizen science movement globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The largest underwater sculpture in the world, the 'Coral Greenhouse' by artist Jason deCaires Taylor, was commissioned by the Museum of Underwater Art and installed at John Brewer Reef, Australia, in December 2019. The planning process required certified engineering design drawings associated with design life, durability and suitability of materials, and baseline ecological surveys. Following approval, the operational phase required annual monitoring of substrate, ecology, social values, and marine debris. We geo-referenced three permanent transects and designed a before/after rapid monitoring assessment of substrate, fish, and invertebrates. Substrate surveys indicated 11% concrete and 89% sand. Fish surveys indicated significant increases of diversity and abundance, with 12 species and 65 individuals recorded in 2018 compared to 46 species and 365 individuals recorded in 2022. Macroinvertebrate species maintained no significant trends in abundance, species richness, and diversity with respect to time between 2018 and 2022. We monitored coral restoration and natural recruitment at the site, measuring aesthetics, survivorship of planted corals, and coral recruitment. Of 131 corals transplanted in March 2020, survivorship was 100% at 1 month, 92% at 6 months, and 91.6% at 12 months. Hard and soft corals were recruited to the structure at a density of 8.35 hard corals/m2 and 10.9 soft corals/m2 over 26 months. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monitoring is critical to gauge the effect of environmental management interventions as well as to measure the effects of human disturbances such as climate change. Recognition of the critical need for monitoring means that, at irregular intervals, recommendations are made for new government-instigated programs or to revamp existing ones. Using insights from past well-intentioned (but sadly also often failed) attempts to establish and maintain government-instigated monitoring programs in Australia, we outline eight things that should never be done in environmental monitoring programs (if they aim to be useful). These are the following: (1) Never commence a new environmental management initiative without also committing to a monitoring program. (2) Never start a monitoring program without clear questions. (3) Never implement a monitoring program without first doing a proper experimental design. (4) Never ignore the importance of matching the purpose and objectives of a monitoring program to the design of that program. (5) Never change the way you monitor something without ensuring new methods can be calibrated with the old ones. (6) Never try to monitor everything. (7) Never collect data without planning to curate and report on it. (8) If possible, avoid starting a monitoring program without the necessary resources secured. To balance our "nevers", we provide a checklist of actions that will increase the chances a monitoring program will actually measure the effectiveness of environmental management. Scientists and resource management practitioners need to be part of a stronger narrative for, and key participants in, well-designed, implemented, and maintained government-led monitoring programs. We argue that monitoring programs should be mandated in threatened species conservation programs and all new environmental management initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Time series data are often observed in ecological monitoring. Frequently, such data exhibit nonlinear trends over time potentially due to complex relationships between observed and auxiliary variables, and there may also be sudden declines over time due to major disturbances. This poses substantial challenges for modeling such data and also for adaptive monitoring. To address this, we propose methods for finding adaptive designs for monitoring in such settings. This work is motivated by a monitoring program that has been established at Scott Reef; a coral reef off the Western coast of Australia. Data collected for monitoring the health of Scott Reef are considered, and semiparametric and interrupted time series modeling approaches are adopted to describe how these data vary over time. New methods are then proposed that enable adaptive monitoring designs to be found based on such modeling approaches. These methods are then applied to find future monitoring designs at Scott Reef where it was found that future information gain is expected to be similar across a variety of different sites, suggesting that no particular location needs to be prioritized at Scott Reef for the next monitoring phase. In addition, it was found that omitting some sampling sites/reef locations was possible without substantial loss in expected information gain, depending upon the disturbances that were observed. The resulting adaptive designs are used to form recommendations for future monitoring in this region, and for reefs where changes in the current monitoring practices are being sought. As the methods used and developed throughout this study are generic in nature, this research has the potential to improve ecological monitoring more broadly where complex data are being collected over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aquatic centres are popular recreational facilities in Australia and other developed countries. These buildings have experienced exponential demand over the past few decades. The growing desire for better indoor environmental quality in aquatic centres has resulted in a marked increase in energy consumption in this sector. With the existence of multiple user groups, achieving thermal comfort has always been challenging. Even though several thermal comfort studies are conducted in other building types, such studies are very limited with respect to aquatic centres. This paper analyses the thermal comfort conditions of various user groups in seven aquatic centres in Australia. Comfort measurements are performed through monitoring environmental parameters and surveying swimmers, staff and spectators. The results revealed the variation of air temperatures among the buildings, resulting in high level of thermal discomfort for the spectators and staff in some of the buildings. The thermal sensation of the staff and spectators had good correlation with the indoor temperatures and PMVs. Altering temperature settings according to the seasons will help to improve the comfort with respect to the adaptation and expectation of the occupants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies on the relationship between environmental performance and environmental disclosure have found mixed results. This exploratory qualitative study investigates the possible reasons for the environmental disclosures of nine companies listed in the top 200 Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) companies. This study reveals that the companies were more likely to disclose environmental information if their stakeholders, particularly from the financial markets (investors) and/or customers, demanded that they do so. Disclosure can then be seen as a function of stakeholders' demand or pressure, and in the absence of such a demand, firms may disclose little or remain silent. The good and poor environmental performers in this study, as rated by the Corporate Monitor ratings of environmental performance, tend to exhibit the same disclosure behaviour, which may indicate that the environmental disclosure may not necessarily reflect the actual performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The Karajarri Indigenous Protected Area, in the south‐west Kimberley, is home to vast intertidal rock platforms that form a culturally and ecologically important environment for Karajarri Traditional Owners and wider Bidyadanga community. Karajarri Rangers initiated a collaborative partnership with researchers to devise an intertidal invertebrate monitoring protocol to meet the requirements of their Healthy Country Plan and sustainably manage their cultural harvesting. The project aimed to design and trial a monitoring protocol that blended Indigenous ecological knowledge and values with western scientific rigour. To investigate and document the community's ecological knowledge of marine resources, a series of Ranger interviews, focus groups and collaborative fieldwork was conducted. Data collected from these qualitative methods provided valuable insights into knowledge of the intertidal environment and fauna and the community's management aspirations and priorities. Informed by these data, a monitoring protocol was cross‐culturally designed to combine Indigenous knowledge and values within a western scientific framework. Two methodologies were piloted, focusing on a small subset of culturally significant target species. Although both were successful, the trial indicated that Rangers preferred abundance‐focused methods for ecological monitoring. Further refinement of the monitoring protocol is required to build western science knowledge of the ecosystem and meet Ranger management goals. However, this study provided the basis of future monitoring strategies for Karajarri Rangers, formed a lasting collaborative partnership and is a useful exploration of Indigenous preferred approaches to western scientific monitoring of intertidal rock platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Today''s global society is economically, socially and culturally dependent on minerals and metals. While metals are recyclable, terrestrial mineral deposits are by definition ‘non-renewable’ over human timescales and their stocks are thus finite. This raises the spectre of ‘peak minerals’ – the time at which production from terrestrial ores can no longer rise to meet demand and where a maximum (peak) production occurs. Peak minerals prompts a focus on the way minerals can be sustainably used in the future to ensure the services they provide to global society can be maintained. As peak minerals approaches (and is passed in some cases), understanding and monitoring the dynamics of primary mineral production, recycling and dematerialisation, in the context of national and global discussions about mineral resources demand and the money earned from their sale, will become essential for informing and establishing mechanisms for sustainable mineral governance and use efficiency into the future. Taking a cross-scale approach, this paper explores the economic and productivity impacts of peak minerals, and how changes in the mineral production profile are influenced not only by technological and scarcity factors, but also by environmental and social constraints. Specifically we examine the impacts of peak minerals in Australia, a major global minerals supplier, and the consequences for the Asia-Pacific region, a major destination for Australia''s minerals. This research has profound implications for local and regional/global sustainability of mineral and metal use. The focus on services is useful for encouraging discussion of transitions in how such services can be provided in a future more sustainable economy, when mineral availability is constrained. The research also begins to address the question of how we approach the development of strategies to maximise returns from mineral wealth over generations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper presents a novel approach for automatic segmentation and object detection of tree crowns in airborne images captured from a low-flying Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) in ecology monitoring applications. Cost effective monitoring in these applications necessitates the use of vision-band-only imaging on the UAV platform; the reduction in spectral resolution (compared to multi- or hyper-spectral imaging) is balanced by the high spatial resolution available (20cm/pixel) from the low-flying UAV, when compared to existing satellite or manned-aerial survey data. Our approach to object detection thus uses both geometry and appearance information (through the use of tree shape and shadow information) in addition to spectral information to help accurately distinguish tree crowns within our application. A predictive geometric template for tree detection is constructed using on-board UAV navigation data, sun lighting information and information about the geometry of the target crown. A two-stage detection algorithm is then used to segment tree crowns based on spectral (colour) information convolved with information from the predictive template. Results of our approach are presented using airborne image data collected from a fixed-wing UAV during a weed monitoring and mapping mission over farmland in West Queensland, Australia. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Community and catchment-based approaches to salinity management continue to attract interest in Australia. In one such approach, Catchment Demonstration Initiative (CDI) projects were established by the Western Australian (WA) Government in 2000 for targeted investment in large-scale catchment-based demonstrations of integrated salinity management practices. The aim was to promote a process for technically-informed salinity management by landholders. This paper offers an evaluation of the effectiveness of one CDI project in the central wheatbelt of WA, covering issues including: its role in fostering adoption of salinity management options, the role of research and the technical requirements for design and implementation of on-ground works, the role of monitoring and evaluation, the identification and measurement of public and private benefits, comparison and identification of the place and value of plant-based and engineering-based options, reliance on social processes and impacts of constraints on capacity, management of governance and administration requirements and an appreciation of the value of group-based approaches. A number of factors may reduce the effectiveness of CDI-type approaches in facilitating landholder action to address salinity, many of these are socially-based. Such approaches can create considerable demands on landholders, can be expensive (because of the planning and accountability required) on the basis of dollars per hectare impacted, and can be difficult to garner ownership from all involved. An additional problem could be that few community groups would have the capacity to run such programs and disseminate the new knowledge so that the CDI-type projects can impact outside the focus catchment. In common with many publicly-funded approaches to salinity, we found that direct benefits on public assets are smaller than planned and that results from science-based requirements of monitoring and evaluation have long lead times, causing farmers to either wait for the information or act sooner and take risks based on initial results. We also found that often it is a clear outline of the process that is of most importance in decision making as opposed to the actual results. We identified limitations in regulatory processes and the capacity for local government to engage in the CDI. The opportunities that CDI-type approaches provide centre around the value of its group-based approach. We conclude that they can overcome knowledge constraints in managing salinity by fostering group-based learning, offer a structured process of trialling options so that the costs and benefits can be clearly and transparently quantified, and avoid the costly mistakes and “learning failures” of the past. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article underscores the need to use community networks to improve wind erosion monitoring in Australia. It states that environmental reporting and understanding of aeolian processes at various spatial and temporal scales demand both extensive temporal and spatial data sources. Dustwatch was created to fill some of the deficiency of the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) network by strategically adding a community of network of instruments and observers. This paper also underscores the nature of Dustwath network and identifies some of the educational and awareness outputs.

It is well known in impact assessment that predictive model outputs will be as credible as their inputs and that model assumptions will drive outputs. What is less well known is how the practice of integrated impact assessment with its pervasive use of predictive computer models and multiple teams of consultants can influence evidence relied upon in deliberations over the impacts and benefits of major projects. This paper draws on an integrated impact assessment of a major energy infrastructure project in Australia known as Basslink to examine the epistemic implications of current practice. It will be argued that what has become standard procedure can serve to diminish the disclosure of prediction uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the design of a sampling quadrant frame constructed as a part of long-term study of leaf-litter-dwelling Stag Beetles being undertaken by the Forest Practices Authority, Tasmania. Information on the materials used and methods followed in constructing the lightweight sampling frame for ecological research and monitoring is presented. Application of this flexible frame made from fiberglass or carbon-fiber in grassland sampling and in restoration treatments is also discussed.

Australia currently has significantly less wind power capacity than Germany, the world leader, but has a much larger land area with considerable untapped wind energy resources. Australia like the rest of the world has experienced a rapid increase in its wind power industry over the last decade, particularly in the southern states, South Australia, Western Australia and Victoria. However, the rapidity in the development of wind power projects has caused controversy and criticism of inadequate planning and inconsistency in environmental impact assessment. This paper examines the implications of the rapid growth in Australian wind power in terms of the need for a strategic approach to environmental assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fauna surveys are traditionally manual, and hence limited in scale, expensive and labour‐intensive. Low‐cost hardware and storage mean that acoustic recording now has the potential to efficiently build scale in terrestrial fauna surveys, both spatially and temporally.With this aim, we have constructed the Australian Acoustic Observatory. It provides a direct and permanent record of terrestrial soundscapes through continuous recording across Australian ecoregions, including those periodically subject to fire and flood, when manual surveys are dangerous or impossible.The observatory comprises 360 permanent listening stations deployed across Australia. Groups of four sensors are deployed at each of 90 sites, placed strategically across ecoregions, to provide representative datasets of soundscapes. Each station continuously records sound, resulting in year‐round data collection. All data are made freely available under an open access licence.The Australian Acoustic Observatory is the world's first terrestrial acoustic observatory of this size. It provides continental‐scale environmental monitoring of unparalleled spatial extent, temporal resolution and archival stability. It enables new approaches to understanding ecosystems, long‐term environmental change, data visualization and acoustic science that will only increase in scientific value over time, particularly as others replicate the design in other parts of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]