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We recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as the sovereign Traditional Owners of Australia and thank them for their stewardship of this Country, its lands, waters and skies. We respectfully acknowledge their culture and customary practices, and pay respect to their Ancestors, Elders and future leaders.

For the first time, the State of the Environment report includes a strong Indigenous narrative across all 12 thematic chapters, a narrative crafted through recognising the leadership, collaboration and authorship of Indigenous Australians who continue their connection as Traditional Owners to their lands, waters and skies.

Click to view the State of the Environment report

 

On 28 March 2025 the government assumed a Caretaker role. Information on websites maintained by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water will be published in accordance with the Guidance on Caretaker Conventions until after the conclusion of the caretaker period.

Due to technical issues, graphs, maps and tables are currently not displaying within the main content, however, are available via the chapter resources navigation bar. We are working on a solution to resolve the issue.

Graphs, maps and tables

Showing results 11 - 20 of 105
Figure 11 Soil classification orders across Australia
Map showing that (for example) calcarosols are found mainly near the Bight, sodosols in inland regions that often coincide with major farming areas, vertosols in far-inland Queensland and New South Wales, and tenosols in inland Western Australia.

Notes:

  1. Anthroposols and ‘no data’ areas are not shown.
  2. The new soil order Arenosols has not yet been mapped.

Sources: Soil classification orders (Isbell 2002) interpreted by Ashton & McKenzie (2001) from the digital atlas compiled by the Bureau of Rural Sciences (2000) from scans of the original mapping by (Northcote et al. (1968)); map projection: Australian Albers GDA94 (ICSM n.d.)

For more information, go toSoil
Figure 12 Extent of modification of Australian soil classification orders, as assessed using the cleared and regrowth or modified areas from the mapping of extant MVGs
Bar chart showing that, for all soil types, covered in vegetation is the most common state, but some have also been heavily cleared, especially kurosol, chromosol and podosol. None show substantial regrowth.

MVG = major vegetation group

Notes:

  1. Categories in legend are based on extant MVGs in the National Vegetation Information System v6.0 (DAWE 2020g):
    ‘Vegetation’ is extant terrestrial native vegetation, including Naturally bare – sand, rock, claypan, mudflat.
    ‘Aquatic’ is the following MVG: Inland Aquatic – freshwater, salt lakes, lagoons.
    ‘Cleared’ is the following MVG: Cleared, non-native vegetation, buildings.
    ‘Regrowth/modified’ is the following MVG: Regrowth, modified native vegetation.
    ‘Not applicable’ is Sea and estuaries, and Unknown/no data.
  2. Excluded soil map classification types (see Figure 11): Anthroposols, Rock, Lakes and no data.

Source: Soil classification orders (Isbell 2002) interpreted by Ashton & McKenzie (2001) from the digital atlas compiled by the Bureau of Rural Sciences (2000) from scans of the original mapping by (Northcote et al. (1968))

For more information, go toSoil
Figure 13 Total vegetation cover anomaly for Australia in December 2009 and 2019
Maps showing that in 2019 there was a strong negative anomaly (that is, reduced vegetation) in inland New South Wales and southern Queensland.

Note: Total vegetation cover anomaly represents the difference between total vegetation cover (green plus brown components) in a given month and the mean total vegetation cover for that month in all available years, expressed in units of cover.

Sources: An interactive version of this figure can be accessed via the GEOGLAM RAPP Map portal (CSIRO 2021c); map projection: Australian Albers GDA94 (ICSM n.d.)

For more information, go toSoil
Figure 14 Agricultural land in Australia protected from wind erosion, 2009–10 and 2019–20
Graphs showing that the fraction protected falls in December and January, typically to below 60%, and is largest in winter at around 70 to 75%.

Note: The percentage of Australia’s agricultural land protected from wind erosion each month is shown for 2009–10 and 2019–20, compared with the range of monthly values between 2001 and 2018. Agricultural land is considered protected from wind erosion when each pixel has at least 50% total vegetation cover.

Source: Howorth et al. (2020)

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Figure 15 Australian carbon budget, including natural and human-caused carbon dioxide sources and sinks (and their net effect in the atmosphere), 2010–19
Infographic showing that gaseous carbon is emitted by industry, transport and other human activity, as well as by fires and land use change including agriculture, and removed by growth of biomass and land land use change including agriculture, but that mo

CO2 = carbon dioxide; Mt = megatonne; yr = year

Notes:

  1. Fossil fuel emissions are based on the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory.
  2. Biospheric fluxes are based on the CABLE land surface model, which takes into account the impact of increasing CO2 levels and changing climate on plant growth and soils.
  3. Fire emissions are from Global Fire Emissions Database (Haverd et al. 2018, Villalobos et al. 2021).
  4. Annual fluxes are the average for the 2010–19 decade.
  5. Units are in million tonnes of CO2.

Source: Canadell (2021)

For more information, go toCarbon
Figure 16 (a) Total global biomass distribution across the kingdom of life. (b) Biomass across animal species
Figure 17 Baseline distribution of potential maximum above-ground woody biomass (forests, woodlands and sparse woody vegetation) for Australia, pre-1750
Figure 18 Distribution of above-ground woody biomass (forests, woodlands and sparse woody vegetation) for Australia, 2016
Map showing a concentration of woody biomass in the south-east, south-west and Tasmania, and a little in the rain forests of Cape York.

Notes:

  1. Units are tonnes per hectare of dry matter.
  2. For comparison, see the map of carbon stock changes in Australia due to forest gains and losses between 2005 and 2016, which is provided as Figure A6.6a in DISER (2021c).

Sources: Figure A6.4a in DISER (2021d); map projection: Geographics GDA94 (ICSM n.d.)

For more information, go toCarbon
Figure 19 Annual area of vegetation burned (bushfire or prescribed) by type (forest, grassland, wetlands) and biome (temperate, tropical, subtropical and semi-arid) in Australia, 1990–2019
Graph showing that the amount is quite variable, but typically around 40 million hectares. Temperate forests and wet/dry tropical grassland account for most area, with subtropical and semi-arid grassland extremely variable and sometimes dominating, someti

Note: Data for the extensive bushfires in early 2020 were not available in the activity tables, but an extensive analysis is provided in DISER (2020b).

Source: Land use, land-use change and forestry Activity Tables 16–17 (DISER 2021a)

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Figure 20 Burned area frequency in forests and grasslands from Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer satellite imagery, 1988–2020