Parks Australia's Natural Values Ecosystems (NESP MaC 1.3)

The Parks Australia Management Effectiveness (ME) system - previously MERI - is underpinned by a controlled, common language that provides a nationally consistent lexicon for a) Natural, cultural, and heritage values; (b) Social, cultural, and economic benefits; (c) Activities and anthropogenic pressures; and (d) Biophysical, and social and economic drivers. The Natural Values component of the common language is defined at three levels: 1) ecosystem complexes; 2) ecosystems; and 3) ecosystem components. This map shows the Ecosystems (tier 2) component of the Natural Values, and delineates features by habitat and depth for the Australian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). This version (2022) of the National Values Ecosystems dataset uses Geoscience Australia's 250m resolution Australian Bathymetry and Topography Grid, 2009 (http://dx.doi.org/10.4225/25/53D99B6581B9A) as the basis for the map. See Hayes et al. 2021 and Dunstan et al. 2023 for a full definition of Natural Values Ecosystem terms, input datasets used, and processing steps involved with the creation of this map. Note that this dataset uses a combination of input data sources and interpolates where data gaps exist. The common language adopts a functional, largely geo-physical perspective to define surrogates for marine ecosystems. This dataset is not a substitute for a validated habitat map (see Seamap Australia National Benthic Habitat Layer: https://metadata.imas.utas.edu.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/4739e4b0-4dba-4ec5-b658-02c09f27ab9a), but has a national coverage and provides valuable broad-scale categorisation of marine ecosystems in Australian waters.

NESP MaC Project 1.3 - Support for Parks Australia’s Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting and Improvement System for Australian Marine Parks

This record provides an overview of the NESP Marine and Coastal Hub bridging study - "Support for Parks Australia’s Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting and Improvement System for Australian Marine Parks". For specific data outputs from this project, please see child records associated with this metadata. -------------------- The system of marine parks that spans Australia’s Commonwealth waters is among the largest in the world. The parks play a major role in conserving marine life, supporting commercial and recreational pursuits, and help to protect cultural values significant to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Parks Australia has developed management plans for the five regional Australian Marine Park (AMP) networks (North, North-west, South-west, South-east and Temperate East) and the Coral Sea Marine Park. Under each management plan, a science plan sets monitoring and research priorities to guide the collection of information to evaluate management effectiveness, and identify opportunities for improvement. This prioritisation is vital given the low levels of knowledge for most of the AMPs, the technical challenges and high cost of implementing science in vast and remote areas, the finite resources available for park management, and the complexity of the decision-making process. This project provided Parks Australia with scientific and technical information and advice necessary to establish monitoring priorities for natural values and pressures for AMP networks and the Coral Sea Marine Park (CSMP). Taken together with previous work completed under the Marine Biodiversity Hub (projects SS2 and D7), this completes a full national priority list for monitoring in AMPs. The combined research provides a nationally accepted common language to describe natural values and pressures in a science-based approach to combining this information to determine national priorities. The Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting and Improvement (MERI) system is the first national process of its type globally and is a significant step towards adaptive, integrated and place-based management. Activities undertaken by this project collated and analysed environmental and human use-data for each of the AMP networks and the CSMP. The key data outputs and Final Project Report identify the monitoring priorities in each Network and the CSMP, and help to identify key knowledge gaps to help inform future research priorities. These steps can be repeated through time alongside improvements in the evidence base and our understanding of how ecosystems respond to multi-sectoral activities to achieve continual improvement in management actions and environmental outcomes, Outputs • Digital map layers per AMP network of: (1) Ecosystems (2) Pressures & Activities (3) Cumulative Impacts • Final Technical Report containing maps of Key Natural Values, and of spatial Monitoring Priorities, including a short summary of recommendations for policy makers of key findings [written]

Marine pressures operating within Australia’s Exclusive Economic Zone (NESP MaC 1.3)

The National Environmental Science Program projects SS2 and D7 (under the Marine Biodiversity Hub) and 1.3 (under the Marine and Coastal Hub) were instigated to support the design of Monitoring Effectiveness (ME) framework for Australian Marine Park (AMP) estate, and contribute to the AMP Science Plan. The overall objective of these projects was to provide a nationally accepted common language to describe natural values and pressures, and a robust approach to combining this information to inform national priorities for monitoring inside AMPs. Broadly, the following approach was taken: 1. Identify Key Natural Values (KNVs) in AMP networks through an expert elicitation process, 2. Develop a national-scale ecosystem map via a combination of depth and characteristic habitat using the ME framework 3. Collate and synthesise pressures operating within Australia’s Exclusive Economic Zone and state/territory waters, as defined by the ME framework's pressures common language 4. Provide a spatially explicit analysis of the relative risks posed to marine conservation values, as defined by the ME framework’s natural values hierarchy. This record describes component 3: collating the pressures by ME common language for all of Australia’s Exclusive Economic Zone and state/territory waters; and determining the cumulative pressure exerted by each activity/sub-activity combination. Components 1, 2 & 4 are described elsewhere.