November 2007

• Spatial Excellence Award for tsunami modelling
• Economic resources revealed

Spatial Excellence Award for tsunami modelling

Geoscience Australia and the Fire and Emergency Services Authority (FESA) in WA has received a joint Asia-Pacific Spatial Excellence Award (APSEA) in the Spatially Enabled Government category for their work on Tsunami Risk Modelling for Emergency Management. The award recognises projects that use spatial information and technology to improve government productivity, efficiency, service delivery, and help agencies integrate ‘customer-centric’ service delivery models.

Dr Chris Pigram, Deputy CEO of Geoscience Australia, accepted the award at the annual APSEA ceremony at Luna Park in Sydney on Thursday 22 November.

Prior to the Indian Ocean tsunami of 26 December 2004, tsunami were rarely considered within an emergency management context for Australian coastal communities and therefore there was limited understanding of tsunami risk to the Australian coastline. However, this event clearly demonstrated the catastrophic nature of tsunami, and the numerous impacts to the WA coast highlighted the threat tsunami poses to the state. In recognition of this threat, Geoscience Australia and FESA of WA, formed a collaborative research partnership to address this issue.

There were two key components of this partnership; (1) the development and application of state-of-the-art science in order to model the tsunami risk, and (2) effective communication of this science to inform and underpin emergency management plans. The engagement and buy-in from all stakeholders was a significant contributing factor to the success of the project. The work was all conducted within the risk management methodology adopted by the emergency management community, and, for the first time in Australia, has led to best practice spatially enabled tsunami science underpinning emergency management plans.

The project used and developed a range of spatial products to deliver outcomes to the WA emergency managers. These products were in the form of maps as well as geospatial datasets which improves the capacity of FESA to integrate the results with other State level datasets to further improve service delivery. In addition to the quality of the spatial outputs, the methodology adopted in this project forms a basis for other jurisdictions to apply in order to understand their tsunami risk.

"This collaboration demonstrated the effectiveness of Australian and State Governments in harnessing and sharing the resources and information available to enable and improve efficiency. The integration of science and emergency management has been pivotal in the success of this project as the scientific outputs have been tailored and targeted to address the needs of the communities at risk", said Dr Pigram.

"This award highlights the efforts and calibre of staff associated with working on the project as well as our collaborative work with the States. As Deputy CEO, I am both flattered and honoured at Geoscience Australia receiving this prestigious award, and I congratulate all who worked on its preparation", he said.

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Economic resources revealed

Australia continues to lead the world in a number of vital commodities according to the latest information of the country's reserves.

Geoscience Australia's annual review of the commodities industry, Australia's Identified Mineral Resources (AIMR) 2007, shows the country continues to have the largest resources of mineral sands (rutile and zircon), nickel, tantalum, uranium, thorium, zinc and lead.

It also ranks in the top six worldwide for bauxite, black coal, brown coal, copper, gold, iron ore, ilmenite, lithium, manganese ore, niobium, silver and industrial diamond.

As well as information on the world rankings, the review reveals that during 2006 there were increases in the economically viable resources for black coal, copper, gold, iron ore, rutile, zircon, platinum group metals, silver, tin, tungsten and vanadium.

These increases were attributed largely to drilling in known deposits, which resulted in the discovery of new ore bodies, or extension of known deposits.

The improved economic value of many commodities also led to a re-assessment of some resources which had previously been considered uneconomic.

Overall mineral exploration spending in Australia in 2006 rose by 29% to a record $1,463.9 million, reflecting strong growth in prices for many commodities on the back of anticipated strong and growing demand, particularly from China.

Several commodities experienced reductions in the reserves, including bauxite, cobalt, gem and industrial diamond, lead, manganese, nickel, uranium and zinc.

The resources for other commodities assessed, notably brown coal, magnesite, molybdenum, niobium, shale oil and tantalum, remained at levels similar to those for the previous year.

Geoscience Australia's Chief Executive Officer, Neil Williams, says that although the recent figures are encouraging, the ability of Australia's minerals sector to sustain its strong recent growth remains dependent on effective exploration, leading to discovery and development of new ore deposits.

"Successful exploration outcomes rely heavily on continuing updates of pre-competitive geoscience data by government agencies, particularly state-of-the-art geoscientific synthesis and integrated research to reduce the risks associated with identifying exploration targets in prospective frontier regions," Dr Williams said.

The 2007 AIMR publication is available in its entirety on line as a PDF download [PDF, 2.6Mb].
Previous editions of AIMR can be viewed on the AIMR archive page.
Commodity information sheets are also available as individual minerals through the Australian Minerals Atlas.

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