Use Case

• Environmental Offsets: Department of Environment

  Summary 

  The Department of Environment and Energy administers the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 Environmental Offsets Policy October 2012

  ‘Environmental offsets’ are broadly understood to mean actions taken by developers to compensate for the adverse impacts of their developments. The Australian Government is increasingly considering environmental offsets as part of its process of taking a decision on whether to approve proposed actions under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). 

  Date 

  Thursday, 16 February, 2017

  Information Flow 

  https://www.environment.gov.au/system/files/resources/12630bb4-2c10-4c8e-815f-2d7862bf87e7/files/offsets-policy_2.pdf

  Benefit Realised 

  The advantage of using cadastre and property based datasets enables a consistent source of truth for displaying and administering Environmental offsets on a national scale.

• The National Exposure Information System (NEXIS)

  Summary 

  The National Exposure Information System is a unique capability developed by Geoscience Australia to estimate the number, cost and characteristics of the people, buildings and infrastructure potentially impacted by a man-made or natural event.
  http://www.ga.gov.au/scientific-topics/hazards/risk-impact/nexis  

  Date 

  Thursday, 16 February, 2017

  Version 

  1.00

  Associated Stakeholder or System 

  Geoscience Australia

  Benefit Realised 

  NEXIS services a number of clients including the insurance sector. This benefit is focusing on the Crisis Coordination Centre.

  Since 2012, GA has been providing spatial support and advice to the Crisis Coordination Centre (CCC) within Emergency Management Australia (EMA) as part of our collaboration with the Attorney-General’s Department.

  A key information requirement identified by EMA was the need to quickly understand what is in an event area. To address this requirement GA designed the Exposure Report which greatly simplifies the interpretation of exposure information for timely emergency response and recovery decision-making.

  The Exposure Report is generated by extracting the relevant attributes from NEXIS such as population and building estimates, agricultural commodities and building costs, and infrastructure counts in the potentially threatened area. This automated process quickly presents the required information in a clear and easily accessible report detailing estimates of what exists in the event area.

  By improving the timeliness and accuracy of information used by the CCC, GA has enhanced the government’s ability to respond to disaster and activate appropriate financial assistance for recovery.

• Emergency Management Australia

  Summary 

  The Crisis Coordination Centre (EMA) is responsible for providing whole-of-government situational awareness to inform national decision-making during a crisis. The centre:

  • Centralises and coordinates information across the Australian Government, states and territories during a crisis in Australia
  • Coordinates Australian Government physical and financial assistance for disaster relief - it is responsible for managing national disaster recovery payments and ensuring states and territory governments, individuals, businesses and primary producers impacted by disasters are well supported through the Commonwealths relief and recovery programs
  • Supports the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade during major emergencies and events overseas
  • Maintains Australian Government response plans and arrangements for responding to domestic and international incidents
     

  Date 

  Thursday, 16 February, 2017

  Agency/Working Group or Committee 

  Emergency Management Australia

  Associated Stakeholder or System 

  Attorney-General's Department

  Benefit Realised 

  Baseline data - geographic datasets to support situational awareness and analysis for response and recovery.

  • NEXIS data - for an EMA Exposure Report Product – This is a profile of what is in the footprint of an event (footprint could be hazard or LGA) which calls upon useful "baseline data" as social and economic indicators. This product would be fed into EMA's "National Impact Assessment Model (NIAM)" that needs baseline data to make an assessment of an event’s severity.
  • "Footprints" of a disaster event (observed for flood and bushfire or modelled if observed isn't available) - from states/territories or satellite, or modelled. This would be used to refine the application of the NIAM (benefits in constraining assistance to area impacted than LGA impacted).
  • They need to make an impact and damage assessment for NDRRA – to estimate the impact of an event’s overall initial cost and then assess the level of govt financial assistance (based on infrastructure damage and community impact, or benchmark cost)
  • To know that mitigation efforts and spending are infact reducing the recovery costs (narrow the nexus between mitigation and recovery). Need to determine the cost benefit analysis of mitigation measures and hotspots for mitigation efforts.
• Bioregional Assessments

  Summary 

  The Bioregional Assessment Program was undertaken by the Australian government in order to better understand the potential impacts of coal seam gas and large coal mining developments on water resources and water-dependent assets, such as rivers, wetlands and groundwater systems.

  The assessments focus on selected areas across Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. These states are the four signatory states under the National Partnership Agreement on Coal Seam Gas and Large Coal Mining Development. The assessments provide a risk analysis that identifies areas where potential impacts are likely to occur. Just as important, the assessments also identify areas where impacts are unlikely to occur. This allows governments, industry and the community to focus on these areas when making regulatory, water management and planning decisions.

  FSDF datasets used: National Topographic Data, National Surface Hydrology, National elevation (SRTM-derived 1 second DEM), Medium scale Imagery (Water Observations from Space), National Catchment Boundaries, Dynamic Land Cover Dataset

  Non FSDF Datasets used: National Surface Geology

  Date 

  Friday, 27 October, 2017

  Agency/Working Group or Committee 

  Bureau of Meteorology

  CSIRO

  Department of Environment and Energy

  Geoscience Australia

  Benefit Realised 

  Strengthening the science underpinning future decisions, the bioregional assessments provided a previously unavailable objective basis for government, communities and industry to consider when debating potential cumulative impacts of coal seam gas and coal mining developments and adaptive management strategies. Australia is the first country in the world to gather and consolidate such a wide range of detailed information to help inform cumulative impact assessments on a whole-of-region scale.

  The assessments will inform Commonwealth and state government decisions in approving and regulating coal seam gas and coal mining operations. For example, bioregional assessments are a source of information that the Independent Expert Scientific Committee on Coal Seam Gas and Large Coal Mining Development can use to formulate their advice to the Australian Government on decisions under the Commonwealth’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, and to state government regulators under relevant state legislation. Development proponents can use the information in writing environmental impact statements for coal seam gas and coal mining proposals.

  The bioregional assessments will also be used to identify data and knowledge gaps where further information is required before development applications proceed.

• Great Artesian Basin Atlas

  Summary 

  The Great Artesian Basin (GAB) is one of Australia's most significant hydrogeological entities covering more than 1.7 million square kilometres, underlying 22% of Australia and intersecting 4 state and territory boundaries. The GAB contains a vast volume of underground water and is the largest groundwater basin in Australia.

  Groundwater resources in the GAB are used to support the pastoral, agricultural and resource sectors as well as supplying water to inland communities. Traditionally, there has been limited accessible scientific information available to decision makers, where properly managing these groundwater resources for competing interests requires a good understanding of how the system works at a regional scale. The GAB Atlas provides valuable information in a geospatial format to assist water managers and communities in making more informed decisions towards sustainable management of this vast water resource.

  Associated Stakeholder or System:
  State government water managers

  Non FSDF datasets: National Surface Geology

  Date 

  Friday, 27 October, 2017

  Agency/Working Group or Committee 

  Geoscience Australia

  Benefit Realised 

  The GAB Atlas and associated datasets combine to form a valuable information resource base for water managers and communities to support informed management decisions for the GAB. The Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines used the GAB Atlas as a basis for developing their water management plans and policies, as well as to inform outsourced regional hydrogeological assessments. It provides previously inaccessible baseline information against which future changes can be assessed, and a reference point to evaluate the effectiveness of management activities. The GAB Atlas also makes valuable scientific data available to a much wider and non-scientific audience than before, and its geospatial format is an accessible way to communicate the GAB’s complex characteristics.