Integrated Monitoring and Reporting

Investment in Integrated Monitoring (including modelling) and Reporting is critical to inform reporting against the Reef 2050 Plan and enable resilience-based and adaptive management of the Reef. For this purpose, our focus will be on contributing towards implementing an effective knowledge value chain, ultimately underpinning best practice decision-making at a whole-of-Reef scale.

Investments under this Component of the Partnership will help underpin the goal of resilience based and adaptive management of the Reef. They will produce significant momentum to introduce innovation in monitoring, new systems with long-term benefits and support critical needs identified through RIMReP.

The Partnership will review key recommendations in relation to critical monitoring gaps of the RIMReP findings 2019 and start investing in addressing these gaps. Priority will be placed on addressing gaps in monitoring areas that contribute to the successful delivery of the Partnership, for example including:  

• the development and monitoring (in conjunction with the Traditional Owner Reef Protection Component) of indicators of cultural and heritage values  

• understanding of processes that support models used to predict water quality in the Reef 

• improved COTS surveillance and  

• improved understanding of reef connectivity and impact of coral bleaching. 

A wide range of models and systems are currently supporting decision-making and policy development for the Reef. These systems, which were designed for specific purposes, will be systematically reviewed and recommendations provided as to how these systems would interact, interface and potentially integrate in an overarching decision-making system.  

In parallel, the Partnership will lead a comprehensive engagement phase with key users (managers, policy makers, industry, Traditional Owners and the broader community) to identify an agreed set of specifications for a Great Barrier Reef decision-support system which builds on the recommendations of the first phase of RIMReP and supports the implementation of Reef 2050 Plan. 

In conjunction with the review of RIMReP recommendations and identification of critical monitoring gaps, the Partnership will systematically review areas which would benefit most from a step change or transformation and engage with industry to set up a transformation fund targeting these specific areas.  

A first round of grants will be delivered, the magnitude of which will depend on industry interest and leveraging. It is anticipated that $5 million will be invested over the term of the Partnership, leveraged with an additional $5 million contribution from non-government funds.