Geological and Bioregional Assessments: a program to encourage industry development and improve regulatory efficiency while maintaining the highest possible environmental standards
Andrew Stacey A B , Mitchell Bouma A , Emily Turner A and Mitchell Baskys AA Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, Geological and Bioregional Assessments, Canberra, Australia.
B Corresponding author. Email: andrew.stacey@awe.gov.au
The APPEA Journal 61(2) 471-476 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ20032
Accepted: 17 March 2021 Published: 2 July 2021
Abstract
The Australian Government’s $35.4 million Geological and Bioregional Assessment (GBA) Program provides independent scientific information and baseline data to governments, the community and regional industries on the potential impacts of shale, tight and deep coal gas development on water and the environment. The program aims to encourage industry development and growth by improving the understanding of upstream operations and their potential impacts to drive regulatory efficiency while maintaining the highest environmental standards. The GBA program comprises a series of independent scientific studies undertaken by CSIRO and Geoscience Australia, supported by the Bureau of Meteorology and managed by the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment. The program was conducted in three stages and focuses on where industry is currently exploring, conducting assessments across three regions; the Cooper Basin, Beetaloo Sub-basin and the Isa Superbasin, each with potential to supply gas to the East Coast Gas Market. The GBA program brings together a range of disciplines to collect, aggregate and analyse environmental baseline data to conceptualise the geologic, hydrologic, ecologic and anthropogenic features of these regions. This robust ‘conceptual’ understanding of the regions combined with rigorous hazard identification enables the program to prioritise potential impacts on water and the environment, improving regulatory efficiency by focusing regulators towards managing those activities where the potential impacts can’t be avoided. Additional papers and presentations from our partners in the GBA program tell the story of how the Program was developed and delivered. The Program leaves a legacy of publicly available baseline data, information and assessment tools that will make regulation of the industry more efficient in the regions assessed.
Keywords: GBA region, regulatory efficiency, user panel, approval processes, sustainable development, Cooper Basin, Isa Superbasin, Beetaloo Sub-basin, shale gas, tight gas, deep coal gas, baseline, unconventional gas development, geology, hydrogeology, prospectivity, chemical screening, protected matters, hydraulic fracturing, well integrity, matters of national environmental significance, matters of state environmental significance, causal network, causal pathway, hazard analysis, impact analysis, potential impact, gas resources, water resources.
Andrew Stacey is an Assistant Director of the Geological and Bioregional Assessment Program in the Commonwealth Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment. He is a petroleum geologist ‘by trade’, with 20 years of experience in academia and government. Prior to joining the department, he worked for the Geological Survey of Victoria and Geoscience Australia in several technical, advisory and managerial roles, working extensively on the regional petroleum potential of Australia’s southern margin, as well as in the unconventional hydrocarbon potential of Australia’s onshore basins. Andrew holds a Ph.D. from the University of Tasmania and an honours degree in earth science from the University of Technology, Sydney. He is a member of AAPG, SPE and the Australian Institute of Energy. |
Mitchell Bouma has over 10 years of experience working across private and public sectors. He has a Bachelor of Science (geology major) with honours in economic geology and a Bachelor of Science (Forestry) from the Australian National University. Mitchell has held regulatory, policy, science and program management roles within the Commonwealth public service. Since July 2019, Mitchell has been the acting Director of the Geological and Bioregional Assessment Program in the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment. |
Emily Turner has a degree (with honours) in chemical engineering from UNSW and has over 15 years of experience in water and natural resource management across industry, NSW and Commonwealth governments. Emily has held scientific, program management and regulatory roles across the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, focusing on the regulation of large coal mining and unconventional gas developments. She is currently the Director, Bilateral Negotiations (ACT, NSW, Tas, Vic.) within the Environment Protection Reform Division. Emily worked on both the Bioregional Assessments and Geological and Bioregional Assessment programs, including as Program Director for GBAs from October 2019 to June 2020. |
Mitchell Baskys is a Senior Program Officer in the Commonwealth Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment’s Geological and Bioregional Assessments Program. He has held a variety of roles in State and Commonwealth government departments, including assisting the Australian Chief Scientist in his audit of the National Offshore Petroleum, Safety and Environmental Management Authorities consideration of exploration in the Great Australian Bight. Mitchell has a bachelor’s degree with honours in Marine Biology from James Cook University. |
References
Australian Government. (2017). Towards a new energy future. Department of the Environment and Energy, Canberra. Available at https://www.energy.gov.au/sites/default/files/towards-a-new-energy-future-factsheet-2017_0.pdf last accessed 22 January 2021.Australian Government. (2020a). Gas fired recovery. Media release, 15 September 2020. Prime Minister, Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction, Minister for Resources, Water and Northern Australia. Available at https://www.pm.gov.au/media/gas-fired-recovery last accessed 22 January 2021.
Australian Government. (2020b). Geological and bioregional assessment program. LiDAR survey factsheet. Available at https://www.bioregionalassessments.gov.au/sites/default/files/lidar_fact_sheet.pdf last accessed 22 January 2021.
Hall, L. S., Buchanan, S., Totterdell, J. M., Lai, É. C. S., Langford, R. P., Sundaram, B., Ransley, T. R., Glenn, K. C., Heugh, A., Inskeep, C., Zhu, R., Lech, M., Skeers, N., and Stewart, G. (2018). Rapid regional prioritisation for tight and shale gas potential of eastern and northern Australian basins. Geological and bioregional assessments program: stage 1. Geoscience Australia for the Department of the Environment and Energy, Australia. Available at https://www.bioregionalassessments.gov.au/assessments/geological-and-bioregional-assessment-program/rapid-regional-prioritisation-cooper-basin-isa-superbasin-beetaloo-sub-basin/rapid-regional-prioritisation-report-stage-1 last accessed 22 January 2021.
Hall, L. S., Orr, L. A., Lech, M. E., Lewis, S., Bailey, A. H. E., Owens, R., Bradshaw, B. E., and Bernardel, G. (2021). Geological and Bioregional Assessments: assessing the prospectivity for tight, shale and deep-coal resources in the Cooper Basin, Beetaloo Sub-basin and Isa Superbasin. The APPEA Journal 61, 477–484.
| Geological and Bioregional Assessments: assessing the prospectivity for tight, shale and deep-coal resources in the Cooper Basin, Beetaloo Sub-basin and Isa Superbasin.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Holland, K. L., Brandon, C., Crosbie, R. S., Davies, P., Evans, T., Golding, L., Gonzalez, D., Gunning, M. E., Hall, L. S., Henderson, B., Kasperczyk, D., Kear, J., Kirby, J., Lech, M. E., Macfarlane, C., Martinez, J., Marvanek, S., Merrin, L. E., Murray, J., O’Grady, A., Owens, R., Pavey, C., Post, D., Rachakonda, P., Raiber, M., Sander, R., Stewart, S., Sundaram, B., Tetreault-Campbell, S., Williams, M., Zhang, Y., and Zheng, H. (2020). Geological and environmental baseline assessment for the Cooper GBA region. Geological and bioregional assessment program: stage 2. Department of the Environment and Energy, Bureau of Meteorology, CSIRO and Geoscience Australia, Australia. Available at https://www.bioregionalassessments.gov.au/assessments/geological-and-bioregional-assessment-program/cooper-basin/cooper-gba-region-stage-two-report last accessed 22 January 2021.
Huddlestone-Holmes, C. R., Frery, E., Wilkes, P., Bailey, A. H. E., Bernadel, G., Brandon, C., Buchanan, S., Cook, S. B., Crosbie, R. S., Evans, T., Golding, L., Gonzalez, Dda, Gunning, M. E., Hall, L. S., Henderson, B., Herr, A., Holland, K., Jarrett, A., Kear, J., Kirby, J., Lech, M., Lewis, S., Macfarlane, C., Martinez, J., Northover, S., Murray, J., O’Grady, A., Orr, M. L., Owens, R., Pavey, C., Post, D., Sundaram, B., Rachakonda, P., Raiber, M., Ransley, T., Tetreault-Campbell, S., and Wang, L. (2020). Geological and environmental baseline assessment for the Beetaloo GBA region. Geological and bioregional assessment program: stage 2. Department of the Environment and Energy, Bureau of Meteorology, CSIRO and Geoscience Australia, Australia. Available at https://www.bioregionalassessments.gov.au/assessments/geological-and-bioregional-assessment-program/beetaloo-sub-basin/beetaloo-gba-region-stage-two-report last accessed 22 January 2021.
Huddlestone-Holmes, C. R., Holland, K. L., and Peeters, L. (2021). Geological and Bioregional Assessments: a tale of two basins. The APPEA Journal 61, 491–494.
| Geological and Bioregional Assessments: a tale of two basins.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Lacey, J., Rodriguez, M., and Herington, M. (2020). Evaluating the effectiveness of user panels in the GBA program. Year 1: analysis of Cooper and Beetaloo user panels. CSIRO, Australia. Available at https://www.bioregionalassessments.gov.au/assessments/geological-and-bioregional-assessment-program/stakeholder-engagement/user-panel-annual-report-march-2020 last accessed 22 January 2021.
Lewis, S. J., Bailey, A. H. E., Bradshaw, B. E., Brandon, C., Buchanan, S., Crosbie, R. S., Dixon-Jain, P., Golding, L., Henderson, B. L., Kear, J., Kirby, J. K., Macfarlane, C. M., Martinez, J., Merrin, L. E., Murray, J., O’Grady, A. P., Orr, M. L., Pavey, C. R., Rachakonda, P. R., Raiber, M., Skeers, N., Tetreault-Campbell, S., Williams, M., and Woods, M. (2020). Geological and bioregional baseline assessment for the Isa GBA region. Geological and bioregional assessment program: stage 2. Department of the Environment and Energy, Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences, Bureau of Meteorology, CSIRO and Geoscience Australia, Australia. Available at https://www.bioregionalassessments.gov.au/assessments/geological-and-bioregional-assessment-program/isa-superbasin/isa-gba-region-stage-two-report last accessed 22 January 2021.
Peeters, L., Holland, K. L., and Huddlestone-Holmes, C. R. (2021). Geological and Bioregional Assessments: assessing direct and indirect potential impacts using causal networks. The APPEA Journal 61, 485–490.
| Geological and Bioregional Assessments: assessing direct and indirect potential impacts using causal networks.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Swirepik, A., Stacey, A., and Dann, R. (2018). An overview of the new geological and bioregional assessments program. The APPEA Journal 58, 625–629.
| An overview of the new geological and bioregional assessments program.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
