Webinar: Government tools for nature-related sensitive location assessments

Event Details

Organiser:	Nature Positive Matters
Location:	Online
Cost:	Free
Target audience:	Corporate Sustainability Officers
Topics	Data Tools Reporting and disclosure
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Overview

In this webinar, Australian Government agencies will provide an overview and practical demonstrations of several publicly available tools that can support baseline sensitive location assessments for nature‑related reporting.

Businesses undertake nature-related assessments to understand how their operations depend on and impact nature and to inform decision-making.

Businesses can use frameworks like the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures’ (TNFD)  LEAP approach to inform scoping and undertaking assessments.

Sensitive locations assessments can be undertaken early in the process of the LEAP approach to help identify areas where nature is especially important, vulnerable, or under pressure. This indicates where business operations may have nature-related impacts and dependencies.

This webinar will demonstrate how publicly available datasets and tools can help businesses identify sensitive locations to better inform nature‑related assessments. Tools being presented include:

Environment Information Australia’s Protected Matters Search Tool (PMST)(Opens in a new tab/window) & Environment Information Viewer (EIV)(Opens in a new tab/window)
Bureau of Meteorology’s Australian Water Outlook(Opens in a new tab/window) & Water Information Dashboard(Opens in a new tab/window)
Australian Climate Service’s Data Explorer (Opens in a new tab/window)& Data Catalogue(Opens in a new tab/window)

Webinar attendees will:

See demonstrations of tools and how to use them to support their nature‑related assessments and reporting.
Learn key considerations when using public data, including coverage, resolution, and completeness.
Gain understanding whether these tools and datasets could be used within their operation.

Speakers

Cassandra Malley is a Team Lead at the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, with a strong background in geospatial and environmental sciences. She leads a team that utilises spatial data and information to improve data capture, undertake analysis for national reporting, conservation prioritisation and natural disaster response, and create decision-support tools.
Ms Elizabeth Johnston is Section Manager, Water at the Bureau of Meteorology, leading the Bureau's water responsibilities and working with government, and the water sector to translate strategy into practical climate, weather and water-related programs, building climate resilience and supporting economic productivity. Ms Johnston represents Australia on the international scale, including as Australia's focal point for the State of Global Water Resources. Ms Johnston most recently led the delivery of the National Climate Risk Assessment – Water Security, building understanding of the need for climate resilience across the water sector.
Prior to joining the Bureau in 2023, Ms Johnston had over a decade experience leading impactful strategy, policy and legislative reform agendas across water, agriculture and natural hazards and emergency management in complex public-sector environments in Victoria.
Tanya Schneider is the General Manager, Delivery at the Australian Climate Service (ACS), where she is focused on strengthening Australia’s climate and environmental data ecosystem and improving how data and insights are delivered to support decision-making.
With over 25 years’ experience in the public and private sector, Tanya specialises in translating complex data and technical capability into practical, user-focused tools. At the ACS, she is driving improvements in access to climate risk information to better support climate and nature-related assessments.