About indicators
The Land Manager's Monitoring Guide provides monitoring tools for a suite of indicators that have been assessed to be of value to land managers to assist them in making land management decisions related to productivity and sustainability.
The term ‘Indicator’ is defined as significant physical, chemical, biological, social or economic variable which can be measured in a defined way for management purposes (CSIRO 1999).
These indicators are designed to provide you with information about how you are managing your influence upon the environment as a land manager. They also enable you to reliably communicate what is happening on your property to others. They have, where possible, been developed to be consistent with methods used for national, state and regional level natural resource management monitoring and decision making.
Further development and evaluation of the guide and Indicator descriptions can be accessed for for more information about the indicators being developed for this guide.
Each indicator includes all the information required to use in the field, collect and manage the data, interpret the results and assist in decision making. This information is arranged under the following headings.
What is it?
This section provides an explanation of what this indicator means and how it relates to land management.
Why monitor?
This section outlines what you will obtain from monitoring this indicator and why you may want to consider investing your time and resources in monitoring this aspect of your property .
Monitoring strategies and standards
This section outlines the key things to consider when planning the monitoring of an indicator. It includes discussion of the monitoring frequency and duration, and provides links or details of any relevant standards that you may want observe.
How do I to measure it?
This section provides scientifically sound procedures for the monitoring of this indicator on your property to obtain information that you can use. Most of the procedures provide more than one level of monitoring for you to choose from to suit your particular circumstances.
A level 1 procedure will provide you with a basic level of monitoring that requires a minimum level of time and resources. A level 2 procedure will provide a greater accuracy but with a likely increase in cost and/or time spent in monitoring. Generally speaking, a level 2 procedure would be preferable where you intend to share the data with others .
The techniques described include how to set up your monitoring and how to carry it out on an ongoing basis. This section also outlines the cost of using the monitoring tools and what can influence this cost. Sometimes the setting up for monitoring costs more than the ongoing monitoring activity: some indicators rely on submitting samples for analysis, while others use your powers of observation and local knowledge.
What does the data mean?
This section helps you interpret the data you have collected. It provides examples of collected data and information on how you can present the data [in tables, chart or maps] to assist your interpretation of the information. This section also provides information on how to interpret your results and where appropriate, includes tables or other information that you can compare your results to.
What are some management options?
This section offers a range of management options that may emerge from the results of monitoring this indicator. Your situation is unique and the data you collect is specific to your property. You will need to assess how relevant these general management options are to you.
How to record and share the results?
This section explains how to simply and accurately record your data. It includes field recording sheets and suggested table formats to maintain an ongoing record of your data. If you want to share your information with others you may need to provide this information in a format that is acceptable to others. When sharing data, it is important to be aware of the methods used to ensure compatibility.
Other information, limitations and relationships of this indicator
The use of any one indicator monitoring procedure only captures information about a limited aspect of the highly interconnected processes that occur on a property. This section outlines how this indicator relates to other indicators and any limitations of monitoring the indicator. This section also provides links to facts sheet and other useful related information.
Glossary & References
Any terms not in common use are defined in the Glossary and the key sources of information used to develop each indicator are listed in the References section.
Download page
Most links to download files are first directed to a download page to enable you to see and select the most appropriate file for your needs.
References
CSIRO (1999). A guidebook to environmental indicators. CSIRO Australia,
Last updated: 24 June 2008