State of Environment

Indicator 58 - Monthly total of fuel used by vehicles at Australian Antarctic Stations

Index: Description | Data | Custodian evaluation | Related resources | Parameters

Description

Indicator Definition: The quantity of fuel used at Casey, Davis, Mawson and Macquarie Island stations
as measured on a monthly basis and reported in the monthly reports from the
Station Plant Inspectors to the Kingston (Head Office) Mechanical Supervisor.

Responsible organisation

Australian Antarctic Division ( Australia )

Custodians

No custodians.

Theme area

Human Settlements

Indicator type

Pressure

Criteria the indicator satisfies

The following 14 out of 15 criteria

1.	Serve as a robust indicator of environmental change
2.	Reflect a fundamental or highly-valued aspect of the environment or an important environmental issue
3.	Be either national in scope or applicable to regional environmental issues of national significance
4.	Provide an early warning of potential problems
5.	Be capable of being monitored to provide statistically verifiable and reproducible data that shows trends over time and, preferably, apply to a broad range of environmental regions
6.	Be scientifically credible
7.	Be easy to understand
8.	Be monitored with relative ease
9.	Be cost-effective
10.	Have relevance to policy and management needs
11.	Contribute to monitoring of progress towards implementing commitments in nationally important environmental policies
12.	Where possible and appropriate, facilitate community involvement
13.	Contribute to the fulfillment of reporting obligations under international agreements
15.	Where possible and appropriate, be consistent and comparable with other countries� and state and territory indicators

Date input

Monthly measurements

Monitoring location

Geographic coverage

Latitude (-54.0 to -54.0)
Longitude (158.0 to 158.0)
Latitude (-66.0 to -66.0)
Longitude (110.0 to 110.0)
Latitude (-66.0 to -66.0)
Longitude (63.0 to 63.0)
Latitude (-68.0 to -68.0)
Longitude (72.0 to 72.0)

Rationale For Indicator Selection: The amount of fuel used in Antarctica for vehicles is proportional to
environmental impact due to the emissions and potential impacts associated
with the footprint of human activities.

Special Antarctic Blend (SAB), a light diesel like fuel, is used at the
stations to power the station generator sets, to provide heat through boilers,
and to run plant and equipment including the station incinerator and vehicles.
Analysis of Indicator Data: Fuel used by station vehicles is an indication of the kms travelled in a
particular period and emissions.

Changes in the quantity of fuel used provide an indication of efficiencies in
plant, energy saving strategies and/or an indication of the ambient
temperature.
Design and Strategy For Indicator Monitoring Program: Spatial scale: Australian Antarctic stations: Casey (lat 66 deg 16' 54.5" S,
long 110 deg 31' 39.4" E), Davis (lat 68 deg 34' 35.8" S,
long 77 deg 58' 02.6" E), Mawson (lat 67 deg 36' 09.7" S,
long 62 deg 52' 25.7" E) and Macquarie Island (lat 54 deg 37' 59.9" S,
long 158 deg 52' 59.9" E).

Frequency: Monthly reports

Measurement technique: The figures are obtained by direct reading of gauges on
the stations on a regular basis. The data is recorded in the Plant Inspectors
monthly reports.
Research Issues: In the future, it is planned to automate the collection of most of this data.

Data

Temporal range of the available data, as described by the metadata record, is from 01-Jan-1990 .

Timespan: January-1993 to February-2016
Number of data points: 1013

To view or download any of the data, you must be logged in

Hide graphs for Casey

Casey: Fuel usage

View graphs for Davis

View graphs for Macquarie Island

View graphs for Mawson

View graphs for Wilkins Runway

Data quality, interpretation and analysis of indicator data

'
Fuel used by station vehicles is an indication of the kms travelled in a particular period and emissions.
Changes in the quantity of fuel used provide an indication of efficiencies in plant, energy saving strategies and/or an indication of the ambient temperature.
Over winter, vehicle use tends to be limited, and this should be reflected in the figures. During the summer season, the population of the station increases dramatically, as does the amount of scientific work being carried out. This leads to an increased requirement for vehicle use - and thereby a rise in fuel usage.
'

Data usage constraints

' This data set conforms to the PICCCBY Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). '

Data access constraints

' Data arising from this project are available from the state of the environment indicator URL given below. '

Custodian evaluation

26 Jun 2002

The graphs show the trend for an increase in vehicle usage over summer as would be expected.

15 Aug 2002

This indicator is a measure of the amount of fuel used in vehicles at the stations. Each station has a number of vehicles and items of plant and equipment that are used to support both station operations (in the case of some items of plant and equipment) and operations or support activities in the field away from the stations.
The quantity of fuel used provides an indication of the level of activity away from the station, and to a lesser extent, an indication of the station population.

12 Nov 2002

Pressure scale - 2

1 - undetectable external pressure on the environment

0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7

7 - extreme external pressure on the environment, degradation accelerating

State of Knowledge scale - 5

1 - Poor

0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7

7 - Excellent

For definitions of the Scale categories, consult the Explanation of the Status Categories

Related resources

Scientific Bibliography 17276 - Harrington, Philip (1999) Government Support for the Renewable Energy Industry in Australia. Proceedings of the 1999 Australian Wind Energy Conference: Keynote Address.

SOE Indicator 47 - Number and nature of incidents resulting in environmental impact

SOE Indicator 48 - Station and ship person days

SOE Indicator 56 - Monthly fuel usage of the generator sets and boilers

SOE Indicator 57 - Monthly incinerator fuel usage of Australian Antarctic Stations

SOE Indicator 60 - Total flight hours in the Australian Antarctic Territory (AAT) by Australian helicopters and fixed wing aircraft

SOE Indicator 76 - Monthly fuel usage of ships travelling to Australian Antarctic Stations

Parameters

The properties link can be used to view details of the parameters measured for this indicator.

Parameter Name	Unit of measure	Properties
Fuel usage	litres	Properties

The following parameters and/or sensor notes are from the metadata record.

Parameters

EARTH SCIENCE > HUMAN DIMENSIONS > ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS > FOSSIL FUEL BURNING
EARTH SCIENCE > HUMAN DIMENSIONS > ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS > INDUSTRIAL EMISSIONS
EARTH SCIENCE > HUMAN DIMENSIONS > INFRASTRUCTURE > BUILDINGS
EARTH SCIENCE > HUMAN DIMENSIONS > INFRASTRUCTURE > ELECTRICITY

Related URLs

http://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/metadata/citation.cfm?entry_id=SOE_vehicle_fuel_usage
Citation reference for this metadata record and dataset

http://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/portal/download_file.cfm?file_id=1272
Download page for Australian Antarctic Data Centre