Data and Information Management from the National Land and Water Resources Audit

The National Land & Water Resources Audit (the Audit), in its first phase (1997-2002), made a series of recommendations about the improved management of Australia’s natural resources. The foremost of these was the need for more strategic data collection to ensure data is accessible, collated and provided to the community and all levels of government as information, to maximise the return on the investment in natural resource management.

In its second phase the Audit had four strategic directions. The second of these, to…

Promote the development of linked natural resource management data and information systems

relates specifically to data and information management. The Audit addressed this through:

Information Partnerships

The Audit has been actively involved with Australian Government spatial information coordination through the Office of Spatial Data Management (ODSM), its Spatial Data Management Group and working groups including Metadata Australian Spatial Data Directory (ASDD) and the Spatial Data Schedule (ASDD).

The Audit had a strategic partnership with ANZLIC, the Spatial Information Council. The Audit and ANZLIC agreed to report on the Status of the Natural Resource Information Infrastructure. We also worked to develop a vision and roadmap for an Australian Natural Resource Information Infrastructure (ANRII) and promote it to senior bureaucrats and politicians through ministerial council forums.

The Audit worked closely with other national agencies and jurisdictional governments to review and renew data access and management arrangements for natural resource information, such as the water data sharing arrangements being developed through the National Water Commission.

The Audit built close links to other strategic spatial information organisations including the Spatial Sciences Institute and the Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information.

Nationally Linked Data and Information Systems

The Audit hosted a number of activities to support and progress the implementation of an Australian Natural Resource Information Infrastructure (ANRII) including discussion papers, workshops and meetings.

A key component of achieving natural resource information systems interoperability has been the development of NRM community agreed application schemas.

The Audit developed Australia’s Resources Online (ARO) as a reporting module of the Australian Natural Resources Atlas in collaboration with ERIN within the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts. Australia’s resources online is an internet application which provides access to national collations of the most up-to-date information to support reporting on the condition and trend of Australia’s natural resources.

Community Information Management

The Audit, in conjunction with ANZLIC - the Spatial Information Council, has produced the ‘natural resource information management toolkit’ to assist regional NRM groups to discover, access, visualise and manage their data and information. The Audit updated and expanded the Toolkit to include data access information for each state and territory.

The Audit participated in the National Knowledge Brokering for Regional NRM project being coordinated by Land & Water Australia. In particular the Audit was represented on the technical panel advising on the feasibility study for an Interconnected knowledge system for NRM.

Atlas and Data Library

The Audit’s key information delivery mechanisms are the:

• Australian Natural Resources Atlas
• Australian Natural Resources Data Library

Related Publications

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