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Streamlined data for environmental reporting 

EcoAssets Banner | Featured Image for Streamlined Date for Environmental Reporting Page by TERN.

In collaboration with our partners ALA and IMOS, we invite you to explore our new shared data platform, EcoAssets.

In November 2021, we reported on a new project in which TERN, Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) and the Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS), three NCRIS-funded Australian national research infrastructure projects that hold environmental data, along with NCRIS-enabled Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) and the Australian Government, were working together to streamline access to integrated data for State of the Environment reporting and other environmental assessments.

ALA, IMOS and TERN Logos | Featured Image for Streamlined Data for Environmental Reporting Page by TERN.
ARDC, Australian Government and NCRIS Logos | Featured Image for Streamlined Data for Environmental Reporting Page by TERN.

The project is called ‘EcoAssets’ and the collaboration is allowing streamlining of access to environmental data from the holdings of TERN, ALA and IMOS into one location, providing integrated data assets to support environmental reporting and assessment needs, such as the recently released 2021 State of the Environment (SoE) report. Although the SoE report was  released in late July 2022 and our collaborative project is still young, a search of the word “EcoAssets” in the SoE report returns a healthy 16 occurrences of information gained from the new platform.

Infographic outlining environmental reporting process | Featured Image for Streamlined Data for Environmental Reporting Page by TERN.
Overview of data sources and streamlining processes for EcoAssets

Seven datasets are now publicly and freely available and further data sets will be released through 2022.

The first biodiversity data asset published under the EcoAssets project is Aggregated Data: Australian Species Occurrences, which enables users to explore the data by threatened species status, bioregion, protected area category, and more. That is, it includes all data required for exploration of species occurrence data by EPBC statusGRIIS status, bioregion, CAPAD protected area category and Forests of Australia status. This provides coverage for Australian terrestrial and marine systems. A future release will include an environmental monitoring and observation summary dataset.

The six further derived data assets also available for terrestrial and marine regions of Australia are:

By increasing alignment between data, the research infrastructures have created not only the seven first release datasets, but also data pipelines to ensure each data asset can be updated at regular intervals – speeding up reporting and assessment efforts in the future.

Infographic outlining density of animal species in Australia | Featured Image for Streamlined Data for Environmental Reporting Page by TERN.
Earth and environmental research infrastructure monitoring locations and activities for NCRIS-enabled TERN, IMOS and AuScope are shown here, overlaid on species record density occurrence data held by NCRIS-enabled ALA

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We at TERN acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians throughout Australia, New Zealand and all nations. We honour their profound connections to land, water, biodiversity and culture and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.

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