Soil health and stability




Soils are the foundation of forest ecosystem health. They provide the physical structure and the chemical and biological functions that support healthy forests.

Priority RFA information

Sustainability Indicators

Inform measures and reporting on performance in relation to the following Sustainability Indicators:

Criterion 4: Conservation and maintenance of soil and water resources

  • 4.1a Area of forest land managed primarily for protective functions
  • 4.1b Management of the risk of soil erosion in forests
  • 4.1c Management of the risks to soil physical properties in forests

Focus areas


  • Evaluating the effectiveness of forest management practices, including the road network to minimise soil erosion and health in high risk areas
  • Simulating and forecasting soil health and stability under future scenarios
  • Monitoring key metrics to test and track thresholds, benchmarks and forecasted outcomes.

Evaluation questions for all RFA regions

  1. What is the health and stability of soil in forests, and what is their predicted trajectory?
  2. Are forest water catchments healthy and what is the predicted trajectory for water availability and quality?

Monitoring activities

  1. Baselines, drivers and trends in soil health and stability cross tenure
    NSW Forest Monitoring and Improvement Program
    NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment and University of Sydney
    Timing: 31 July 2020 to 30 June 2021
    More details here.

  2. Evaluating forest road network to protect catchment health cross tenure
    NSW Forest Monitoring and Improvement Program
    Alluvium and the NSW Soil Conservation Service
    More details here

Research

See research priorities.

Outputs

Co-ordinated state-wide monitoring projects.

Data sharing portals established and operating, including:

  • SEED (The Central Resource for Sharing and Enabling Environmental Data in NSW)
    Department of Planning, Industry & Environment – Environment, Energy and Science - Science, Economics and Insights Division – Economics, Data Analytics and Insights branch
    Activity: Contains publicly accessible land, air and water data from NSW Government agencies, including species sightings, vegetation change, vegetation mapping, Ramsar wetlands
    Timing: 2016 – 2027/28
    More details here

  • eSPADE
    Department of Planning, Industry & Environment – Environment, Energy and Science
    Activity: Provides access to soil profile and soil map information published by the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, including map data, reports and images, primarily sourced from the NSW Soil and Land Information System (SALIS)
    More details here

Collaboration between agencies on shared program.

Reports detailing results of programs.