Monitoring Standards - Why have standards for monitoring?

When undertaking monitoring, it is very important that standard techniques are used.

Benefits from collecting data in a standardised way are:

• Increased data sharing - When people have data collected in a standard way they can compare it to data collected by others who have also used that standard.
• Higher quality data - When there is a clear understanding of how a measurement was made, confidence that the data is accurate is increased, and the conclusions that can be drawn from them are more robust and dependable.
• Improved data integration - Where data have been collected consistently over time they can be integrated with, and provide support for, management decisions.
• Improved data security - Standard datasets can more easily be incorporated into corporate databases, providing long-term storage and ensuring that the data is in a secure location.

To be comparable over time, data from regular monitoring efforts should not only be collected consistently, but also stored in a secure location. The department has created and maintains many Standard Operating Procedures for monitoring threatened and priority species and ecological communities and also has a series of Monitoring Protocols.

There are standard report forms used by the department to collect information on species and ecological communities. These are used to collect information which is stored in the databases kept by the department. These report forms are available on the department's website at: Threatened animals, Threatened plants and Threatened ecological communities.