The United Nations declared 1990–2000 the International Decade for Disaster Reduction², urging action to reduce the loss of life, property damage and social and economic disruption caused by natural disasters. In response to a growing need for natural disaster risk information, Geoscience Australia established the Cities Project in 1995 to improve how cities around Australia prepare for and respond to natural hazards.

Over 10 years, Geoscience Australia worked with seven cities to examine the elements at risk–such as buildings and people–and their vulnerability to cyclone, tsunami, earthquake, flood, bushfire and landslide. The Cities Project discovered that while cities had risk assessments for some individual hazards, these were undertaken in isolation. The Cities Project developed a consistent method of assessing a city's risk of multiple hazards and modelling their potential impacts. By identifying frequent and rare natural disasters, the Cities Project enabled local governments to compare their relative risk of multiple hazards for the first time, and make informed emergency management planning decisions.

Using sophisticated modelling tools, the Cities Project identified that Perth's risk of earthquake with potentially significant impacts was higher than previously understood. In 2005, the project highlighted a need to improve emergency management planning and risk reduction activities. Previously, these activities were based on prior experience and living memory, and naturally focused on the bushfires that occur regularly in the area.

Geoscience Australia's information is used by governments and emergency managers around Australia to improve our communities' ability to prepare for, mitigate against and respond to natural disasters.

On 26 December 2004, a magnitude 9.1 earthquake occurred off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia causing the death of over 220 000 people³. At the time, there was limited regional earthquake monitoring and tsunami warning capability, and no response strategies in place. Consequently, existing systems could not provide warnings or a planned response for the tsunami waves which followed.

While Australia was fortunate not to be in the direct path of the 2004 event, it is still vulnerable to tsunami threat, with waves able to arrive on the mainland in as little as two hours⁴.

In 2005, the Australian Government pledged $68.8 million⁵ to build a tsunami warning system to mitigate against the threat of tsunami to Australia and the Indian Ocean region. Geoscience Australia built on existing scientific expertise and infrastructure to improve our capability to detect tsunami-generating earthquakes that could impact Australia's coastline. This infrastructure and capability forms the backbone of the Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre, jointly operated with the Bureau of Meteorology.

Completed in 2008, the Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre provides monitoring, analysis and warning operations for Australia and its territories, 24 hours a day, 365 days per year. Within 10 minutes, it can notify of an earthquake with the potential to generate a tsunami and issue a tsunami warning within 15 minutes. This provides emergency managers and the public with essential time to prepare and respond. In addition, models developed by Geoscience Australia show the likely impact to Australia's coastline to inform better planning in the event of an approaching tsunami.

In February 2011, Tropical Cyclone Yasi devastated Far North Queensland. As the situation unfolded, the Prime Minister received operational briefings from the Australian Government Crisis Coordination Centre (CCC), which centralises government response during a crisis. These briefings included paper maps that took 5 hours to produce and only showed a basic overview of the infrastructure contained within the cyclone's footprint. Following the cyclone, it took many days for the CCC to establish the detailed nature of damage and the full extent of the impact.

In late 2011, the CCC collaborated with Geoscience Australia to improve the timeliness and quality of maps produced. Geoscience Australia partnered with the Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation to introduce an innovative digital production process specifically tailored to the CCC's needs, reducing map generation time to two minutes.

In January 2015, the Adelaide Hills experienced devastating bushfires. Using the new processes developed by Geoscience Australia, the CCC was able to create up-to-date digital maps to brief the Prime Minister on the extent and severity of the crisis as it unfolded. These automatically refreshed as new data was received, and included details of what was contained within the footprint and could potentially be impacted by the disaster. This information included buildings such as residences, schools and hospitals, as well as infrastructure such as roads and utilities, thereby informing decisions about physical and financial assistance.

By improving the timeliness and accuracy of information used by the CCC, Geoscience Australia has enhanced the government's ability to respond to disaster and activate consistent and targeted financial assistance.

Farming in the Ord Valley in Western Australia's Kimberley region began in the 1960s, with long-term water security provided with the construction of the Ord River dam in 1972 to create Lake Argyle. Lake Argyle is Australia's second largest inland reservoir, supplying water to 14 000 hectares of farmland in the Ord River Irrigation Area³. Since the completion of the dam, state and federal governments have developed plans to expand the scheme significantly with further irrigation development⁴.

In the 1990s, the WA Government recognised that salinity, or build-up of salt in the soil, posed a risk to the economic and environmental sustainability of agriculture in the Ord. In 2005–10, Geoscience Australia led collaborative geophysical and hydrogeological investigations to identify areas suitable for irrigation and those at risk of salinity. The $6 million program provided crucial data to inform the expansion areas' development strategy, including infrastructure design, and irrigation and cropping strategies. This was the first time in Australia salinity investigations were conducted before land development began.

Confident that irrigation expansion was economically and environmentally sustainable, federal and state governments invested over $500 million to build key infrastructure for the region. Based on these investigations, in 2012 the WA Government released 13 400 hectares of land, attracting a $700 million investment over six years to develop irrigated agriculture in the expansion areas^5.

By identifying areas suitable for irrigation in the Ord Valley, Geoscience Australia has underpinned responsible and sustainable agricultural investment in Western Australia.

Australia's Great Artesian Basin (GAB) extends beneath 1.7 million square kilometres of Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and the Northern Territory, making it one of the largest groundwater systems in the world⁷. This nationally important water resource sustains communities, agriculture, industry and endangered ecosystems.

Since the 1870s, thousands of uncapped, free-flowing bores were drilled into the GAB to distribute water to livestock via open drains. This method lost up to 90 per cent of water extracted to evaporation⁸. Over time, uncontrolled flow reduced water pressure, causing bores to cease flowing and degrading natural springs. These springs sustain threatened animal and plant species and rely entirely on groundwater from the GAB to survive.

In the early 1900s, governments began to recognise the need to recover water pressures in the GAB. Geoscience Australia undertook an eight-year project to develop a groundwater flow model of the GAB in 1992. Drawing on longstanding groundwater knowledge and extensive datasets collected over 20 years, this model helped target areas for bore rehabilitation and predict pressure recovery.

Geoscience Australia's work has since informed 15 years of state and federal government investments of more than $112 million to repair uncontrolled bores and replace open drains with piped reticulation systems⁹. These restorative actions have allowed aquifer pressures to recover, and save 200 billion litres of water that would have been lost to evaporation each year¹⁰. This investment has safeguarded ongoing water supplies, thereby maintaining water resources for agriculture and preserving the natural springs that rely on the GAB to survive.

Australia's ancient landscape naturally contains salt in our soil and groundwater. Natural groundwater movement releases it into our rivers; too much salt affects the taste and threatens the quality of drinking water extracted downstream. The World Health Organisation guidelines state the acceptable amount of salt in drinking water is 800 EC units, a measure of salt concentration¹³.

Increasing amounts of salt were recorded in the Murray River from the 1960s; this was projected to exceed 800 EC at Morgan, South Australia for 27 per cent of the time by 2000¹⁴. As the river at Morgan is an important water source for Adelaide, urgent action was required to reduce the amount of salt entering the river to preserve the city's drinking water quality. In response, the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) set a target in 1988 to keep the salinity at Morgan below 800 EC at least 95 per cent of the time.

Throughout the 1990s, Geoscience Australia worked in collaboration with the CSIRO and state agencies to address the issue. Geoscience Australia's hydrogeological mapping and models were fundamental in identifying areas of high salinity hazard, and measuring the salt load across the basin.

The MDBA used these studies to develop a basin-wide strategy to reduce salt in the Murray River, including salt interception schemes to remove salt before it enters the river¹⁵. To maximise the amount of salt extracted, Geoscience Australia's data helped to determine where to locate salt interception stations. Each year, these stations remove 450 kilotonnes, or 450 000 tonnes, of salt from the Murray River¹⁶. This ensures the water at Morgan meets the MDBA target¹⁷, thereby protecting Adelaide's drinking water.

Australia's marine jurisdiction is the third largest in the world². It holds energy, fisheries and environmental assets of great economic, social and ecological significance. In order to manage these important marine assets responsibly and effectively, the Australian Government relies on information about the sea floor. This information is obtained through mapping the shape and depth of the sea floor, and acquiring biological and geological data. This helps identify potential oil and gas resources, informs sustainable management of fisheries, and identifies patterns of biodiversity to support conservation.

Due to the great extent and depth of Australia's marine environment, very little was known about our sea floor until the 1960s. In the last 50 years, Geoscience Australia has undertaken ongoing sea floor mapping programs to better understand and build a national view of our marine estate. Early work focused on areas with potential oil and gas resources under the sea floor, providing fundamental geological information to Australia's exploration industry. By the 1990s, technological advances allowed for more extensive studies, leading to the redefinition and expansion of Australia's maritime boundaries. In the 2000s, Geoscience Australia mapped important ecosystems around Australia, which supported the declaration of marine protected areas. More recently, Geoscience Australia's sea floor mapping expertise has been used in support of the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

Geoscience Australia's sea floor mapping work has underpinned an exponential growth in the understanding of Australia's marine environment and will continue to play an important role in Australia's efforts to manage its extensive and highly diverse marine jurisdiction.

Australia's marine jurisdiction contains billions of dollars of fishery, mineral and petroleum resources⁴ and is home to some of the world's most iconic environmental features. Effective management of our maritime boundaries underpins all economic activity in Australia's marine space and ensures security of our borders.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea defines a nation's rights over its surrounding ocean. This includes, amongst other rights, the rights to resources on the continental shelf up to a distance of 200 nautical miles from the coast. A country can secure additional rights to continental shelf beyond this limit, where it can prove the seabed is a natural extension of its land territory. Additional rights are confirmed by making a submission to an expert Commission at the United Nations⁵.

In 1994, Geoscience Australia collaborated with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Attorney-General's Department to identify areas of Australia's extended continental shelf. The following decade saw intensive scientific, legal and diplomatic work result in the largest and most complex submission ever made to the Commission⁶. In April 2008, Australia's entitlement to 2.56 million square kilometres of extended continental shelf was endorsed⁷, increasing Australia's confirmed marine jurisdiction by 25 per cent, from 11.26 to 13.86 million square kilometres.

Identifying and proclaiming Australia's extended continental shelf is just one part of Geoscience Australia's ongoing efforts to define and maintain Australia's maritime boundaries. This work provides certainty over Australia's entire marine jurisdiction—supporting the nation's economic advancement and maritime security while ensuring responsible management of our oceans.

The last great wilderness on Earth, Antarctica, is governed by the Antarctic Treaty System⁹. This is a unique agreement among invested nations to protect the environment, prioritise scientific research and promote peace and co-operation in the region. Australia has been a leader in Antarctica for over 100 years¹⁰, contributing to the world's understanding of the region and its processes.

As a party to the Antarctic Treaty, Australia adheres to its responsibilities in the region. Protecting the marine environment within the East Antarctic region is a high priority under the treaty and, as such, a key science objective for the Australian Government.

In 2007, Geoscience Australia collaborated with the Australian Antarctic Division to map the sea floor in support of an international census of Antarctic marine life¹¹. This followed Geoscience Australia's success in using these techniques to identify links between sea floor characteristics and biological communities around Australia's coastline.

This survey was the first opportunity for scientists to use sea floor habitat mapping in the Antarctic region, providing a complete picture of the distribution of distinct biological communities within the survey area. Analysis uncovered the existence of previously unknown deep sea coral communities, which form important habitats for a range of species dependent on it for their survival.

Findings from Geoscience Australia's surveys have significantly contributed towards the Australian Antarctic Division's successful bid to declare two Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems in 2008. This declaration prohibits fishing within areas covering 2100 square kilometres¹², protecting these fragile and slow-to-recover coral communities from damage.

Australia is the flattest continent on Earth, although it is far from flat. It extends from 15 metres below sea level at Lake Eyre to 2228 metres at Mount Kosciuszko². Topography, which charts the shape and height of our land, is the fundamental information that underpins mapping and surveying work. National infrastructure, defence, environmental management, water security, urban planning and navigation safety rely on the accuracy of this information, which Geoscience Australia has been providing since 1947.

Until 2000, Geoscience Australia measured the height and shape of Australia using human observations, either from lengthy field surveys or aerial photography. Due to the size of Australia, national data from these methods is limited to a resolution of 250 metres, which only depicts features larger than a football field.

The first time topographic information was collected using objective observations was in 2000, when NASA used the space shuttle Endeavour to map 80 per cent of land around the globe. In 2009, Geoscience Australia used these data to improve the resolution of national topography maps by more than 8 times, to a resolution of 30 metres.

In 2009, Geoscience Australia began using aeroplane-mounted laser ranging to map topography at a resolution of 1 metre or better depicting features as small as a tree or car. A range of new applications take advantage of this improved level of detail, such as improved national communications infrastructure and more accurate flood predictions. Geoscience Australia now has coverage of 95 per cent of urban areas at 1 metre or better, ensuring the accuracy and reliability of Australia's fundamental mapping information.

Before modern navigation systems, people used the sun, moon and stars to understand where they were and to navigate where they wanted to go. Advances over the centuries have led to the development of coordinate systems, which we still use today to accurately position ourselves on the Earth.

In 1966, Geoscience Australia worked with state and territory governments to develop Australia's first national coordinate system. It used astronomical observations as a reference, providing a level of accuracy of 200 metres. In the 1990s, satellite technologies allowed Australia to develop a more accurate and precise coordinate system. Geoscience Australia took advantage of this technology in 1994 to improve Australia's positioning infrastructure and develop a new national coordinate system that was accurate to 10 centimetres. This enabled new commercial developments in mining, construction and agriculture to use this increased accuracy.

Australian farmers were early adopters of positioning technologies used in auto-steer tractors⁴. By 2008, their use had improved crop yields by up to 50 per cent, and reduced usage of pesticides and herbicides⁵. Currently, more than 80 per cent of Australian grain farmers use positioning technologies⁶, which are reliant on Geoscience Australia's national infrastructure and coordinate system to operate.

In collaboration with state and territory governments, Geoscience Australia is now updating the national positioning infrastructure and refining Australia's coordinate system to achieve an accuracy of 3 centimetres across the country by 2017. By 2020, positioning technologies are expected to lower costs, improve water usage, and increase Australian grain farmers' productivity by $773 million⁷.

Australia is a vast continent with highly varied landscapes, from deserts to tropical rainforests, from pastoral grasslands to coastal urban environments. Each landscape plays an important role and faces different challenges. The Australian Government needs to know how our land is being used in order to sustainably manage and develop it. This is essential to understanding and addressing a range of national challenges such as drought, salinity, and ecosystem health.

Surveying land cover–or the features that cover the continent, such as trees, waterbodies, buildings or crops–helps build a picture of how our land is used over time. In 2009, the Australian Government asked Geoscience Australia and the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) to compile a comprehensive national picture of Australian land cover. This had not previously been possible as states and territories used different data collection methods and vegetation classification schemes.

Geoscience Australia drew on its extensive archive of images of Australia taken from satellites. Applying specialist data processing skills, Geoscience Australia analysed eight years of national satellite imagery and categorised the types of vegetation that covered the continent. Released in 2011, the first national census of land cover provided the baseline for monitoring changes to our environment.

In 2015, Geoscience Australia released an updated land cover census containing a series of biannual snapshots from 2002 to 2013. This provides an annual picture of changes to our environment over time, observing the effects of drought, flood, urban expansion, and agricultural development on our continent.

It is only in the last 50 years that we have been able to view our planet from space. Images taken from satellites orbiting the Earth are now an important tool for monitoring our landscape. When the United States Government launched the first Earth monitoring satellite in 1972, data had to be transmitted to stations on the ground twice a day. Alice Springs was identified as the ideal location to download data from the satellite as it passed over Australia. With the assistance of the United States Geological Survey, Geoscience Australia built the Alice Springs Ground Station in 1979 and it has been supporting international satellite programs ever since.

By hosting a ground station, Australia has had the opportunity to influence and benefit from international developments in satellite technologies without the expense of launching a satellite of its own.

Since opening, the Alice Springs Ground Station has collected data from 27 satellites, from the United States, European Union, Japan, China, India and Canada. Currently, Geoscience Australia collects, processes, stores and distributes satellite imagery from seven different satellites. This information is used to monitor land use, develop agriculture, help discover new mineral and energy resources, ensure our water security, and respond to natural disasters such as bushfires, cyclones and floods.

Australia now has a 40-year record of imagery documenting changes to our continent and our landscape. As new satellites and technologies emerge, the Alice Springs Ground Station will continue to add to Australia¿s growing archive of satellite imagery, and applications for its use will continue to grow.

Assets such as cars decrease in value over time; others, like real estate, increase in value. However, the value of data and information is enduring. Geoscience Australia has been collecting assets of national geological significance since 1946, growing from physical samples and maps to digital data and reports. Collected with purpose and meaning over time, Geoscience Australia's geological archive builds a cumulative picture of our nation's geological history and significant natural resources.

Since commercial production of oil and gas began in the 1960s, Australia's exploration industry has relied on the geological data and information in Geoscience Australia's collection. Each year, the Australian Government releases selected offshore regions to industry for petroleum exploration. This is supported by information from Geoscience Australia, including geological and geophysical data, and assessments of each region's geology and petroleum systems. This prospectus is made available to industry free of charge to ensure a low cost of entry into the Australian market, and to allow companies to make informed exploration investment decisions.

In turn, companies conduct further surveys or collect additional physical samples. Under Australian offshore petroleum legislation, these are stored at Geoscience Australia on behalf of the Australian Government to support future exploration. This cumulative process of data acquisition, storage and release reduces duplication in exploration effort, ensuring Australia remains competitive in the global resources market.

Over the last 30 years, the Australian Government has released 991 offshore areas to industry¹ with over $35 billion spent on exploration². This has resulted in critical foreign investment, job creation and new national infrastructure. The enduring value of Geoscience Australia's national collection fuels Australia's exploration industry and supports our future prosperity.

Mobile phones, flat screens and long-life batteries are essential to our everyday life. The rapid uptake of these and other emerging technologies in the early 2000s led to a sharp increase in the usage of particular metal and mineral commodities that were not previously in high demand. Global production and supply limitations put the high-tech industries of some countries at risk. Potential shortages prompted major industrial economies to document the commodities that were critical for their industries.

As a resource-rich nation, Australia has the potential to supply many of these critical commodities. In 2010 the Australian Government asked Geoscience Australia to report on the country's inventory of a group of metals called rare-earth elements, which were considered critical by all major trade partners. As the Australian Government's advisor on the nation's mineral resources since 1946, Geoscience Australia was able to draw on 70 years of data, reports and expertise to quickly provide advice on the nation's supply of rare-earth elements.

In 2013–14, Geoscience Australia conducted additional analyses and recognised Australia's potential to supply a wide range of other critical commodities. Of the 55 elements assessed, Geoscience Australia advised that the country has known resources of 36 critical commodities, and identified potential new areas for industry to explore for undiscovered resources³.

Geoscience Australia's advice has given Australia a clear picture of its potential to supply trade partners with critical commodities. In addition, Geoscience Australia's resource assessments have provided a basis for industry to find, extract, and supply these commodities that are essential to our social and economic development.