State of the Environment Database of Antarctic related indicators

Antarctica is the world's greatest remaining wilderness area. It plays a significant role in many global environmental issues such as wind and water currents and world weather patterns. State of the Environment Reporting: - provides a 'snap-shot' of the status of the Antarctic environment - relies on long-term monitoring of environmental and other variables - allows the detection of trends and patterns, which may be due to natural variability or human-induced (anthropogenic) pressures Why are we interested? State of the Environment Reporting allows us to: - assess the quality of the Antarctic environment - identify threats to the Antarctic environment - monitor the pressures we exert on it and track the impact and efficiency of our activities in the Antarctic. How do we do it? State of the Environment Reporting is based on environmental indicators. Indicators: - are data that summarise physical, chemical, biological or socio-economic factors which best represent the key elements of the environment - are grouped into themes We have developed a web-accessible computer system called SIMR that manages the indicator data, metadata, and custodian information. The system automatically prompts custodians for data and evaluations when required and can produce reports on indicators via the web whenever requested.