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A major scorecard gives the health of Australia’s environment less than 1 out of 10

"Fires and floods: Australia already seesaws between climate extremes – and there's more to come"

March 30, 2020 6.09am AEDT

Albert Van Dijk
Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University

Luigi Renzullo
Senior Research Fellow, Australian National University

Marta Yebra
Senior lecturer, Australian National University

Shoshana Rapley
Research assistant, Australian National University

Disclosure statement inside.

2019 was the year Australians confronted the fact that a healthy environment is more than just a pretty waterfall in a national park; a nice extra we can do without. We do not survive without air to breathe, water to drink, soil to grow food and weather we can cope with.

Every year, we collate a vast number of measurements on the state of our environment: weather, oceans, fire, water, soils, vegetation, population pressure, and biodiversity. The data is collected in many different ways: by satellites, field stations, surveys and so on.

We process this data into several indicators of environmental health at both national and regional levels.

The report for 2019 .. http://wenfo.org/ausenv/#/2018/Exposed_soil/Grid/Actual/States_and%20Territories/bar,options/-28.96/135.00/4/none/Roadmap/Opaque , released today, makes for grim reading. It reveals the worst environmental conditions in many decades, perhaps centuries, and confirms the devastating damage global warming and mismanagement are wreaking on our natural resources.

Immediate action is needed to put Australia’s environment on a course to recovery.

Environment scores in the red

From the long list of environmental indicators we report on, we use seven to calculate an Environmental Condition Score (ECS) for each region, as well as nationally.

These seven indicators – high temperatures, river flows, wetlands, soil health, vegetation condition, growth conditions and tree cover – are chosen because they allow a comparison against previous years. In Australia’s dry environment, they tend to move up and down together, which gives the score more robustness. See the interactive graphic below to find the score for your region.

More - https://theconversation.com/a-major-scorecard-gives-the-health-of-australias-environment-less-than-1-out-of-10-133444