Summary

Integrated environmental assessment (IEA) is a policy-orientated process for combining information from diverse knowledge systems to inform decision-making.

This technical report explores Integrated Environmental Assessment (IEA) as an approach with significant potential to improve the delivery of sustainable development in northern Australia. IEA is an interdisciplinary and policy-orientated process for combining information from diverse scientific disciplines and knowledge systems to inform and enhance decision-making. IEA helps close decision-making, data and engagement gaps between higher level legislative requirements and on-ground project assessment and approval. The ability of IEA to synthesise and analyse information from multiple knowledge systems at relevant scales makes it particularly useful for informing development decisions in large, contested areas that contain high biodiversity and cultural values. As one example, products arising from the IEA process could integrate with and inform landscape-scale and regional planning, helping to identify areas where development, cultural and environmental conservation values overlap, compete or complement, and facilitate exploration of scenarios of environmental and development futures.

This report explores an IEA process framework for Australia, and offers a preliminary analysis of using IEA in Northern Australia. Drawing on current knowledge and experience in IEA, this technical report explores a broadly applicable IEA process framework for conducting IEA in Australia. The report provides a preliminary analysis of using IEA in northern Australia, stepping through each stage of an example IEA process framework. This is not a report on an actual IEA process, rather a scoping document with the objective of highlighting how the IEA approach could inform and improve sustainable development decisions in Australia.