A third and very wet La Niña year brought very good wetland and vegetation growth conditions to most of the country. Several key indicators reached their highest value since 2011.
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Numbers represent the relative change from 2000-2021 average conditions. such a change can be part of a long-term trend or be within normal variability. Details on each of the indicators shown are provided in this report
The National Environmental Condition Score (ECS) improved 1.8 points out of ten to reach 8.7 points.
The Environmental Condition Score is a score between 0 and 10 expressing condition relative to previous years. It is calculated as the average rankings of component scores (from top to bottom in the bar graph): inundation, streamflow (blue), vegetation growth, leaf area, soil protection, tree cover (green) and the number of hot
days (orange).
The ECS score was the highest since before 2000 in New South Wales (NSW), Victoria (Vic) and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). There were also improvements in South Australia (SA) and Queensland (Qld).
Conditions declined somewhat in Tasmania (Tas) and Western Australia (WA) but remained above average. However after a reprieve in 2021, poor conditions returned to the Northern Territory (NT).
