Environmental studies

Subject guide

This NSI Libraries online subject guide provides links to information available on the web. Some resources require a DEC username and password. Don’t know your DEC username and password? Contact your Campus Student Administration or your teacher.

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Subject web links

 

Associations & organisations

Carbon Reduction Institute (Australia)

Climate Action Network Australia (CANA)

Is an alliance of over 65 regional, state and national groups from throughout Australia.

Green Building Council of Australia

National Centre for Sustainability (Australia)

Stockholm Environment Institute

Urban Ecology Australia

WWF-Australia

Links

2010 International Year of Biodiversity (UN)

Alternative Farming Systems Information Center

Resources about sustainable food systems and practices

Australian Soil Resource Information System

Information in maps on soil and land resources

Carbon emission calculator

Estimates greenhouse gas emissions of your household or business.

CSIRO - Climate change and mining communities

Ecological footprint calculator (WWF)

IUCN red list of threatened species

Provided by the International Union for Conservation of Nature

National vegetation information system

A comprehensive data system that provides map information on the extent and distribution of vegetation types in Australian landscapes

Primary industries & environment
TAFE Studylinks

What is climate change?

Directories

Carbon offset guide Australia

Independent directory of Australian carbon offset providers

Directory of Australian environment departments

Environment directory

Green directory

Related subject guides

Building

Business and management

Project management

 

Government information

Australian Heritage Council

Dept of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities

Dept of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency

Greenhouse Gas Reduction Scheme

Land & Water Australia

Living greener

National dryland salinity program

NSW Dept of Environment, Climate Change and Water

NSW National Parks

Water for life

Weeds in Australia

Legislation

EDO fact sheets - provided by the Environmental Defender's Office (Ltd) NSW

Explain different aspects of NSW and Commonwealth laws which affect the environment and environmental campaigning.

Lawlink NSW and NSW legislation

Legal Research - Compiled by the High Court of Australia

Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII)

National greenhouse and energy reporting act 2007

Statistics

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) provides statistics such as Australian social trends e.g. Are households using renewable energy? and other relevant documents under the following catalog numbers:

1370.0 - Measures of Australia's progress, 2010 - chapter environment

4613.0 - Australia's environment: issues and trends, Jan 2010

Standards

This subscription service gives TAFE NSW students access to over 6,500 full-text Australian standards. Search for relevant Australian standards by visiting Australian Standards Online. Full-text access only available in your NSI Library (For downloads USB drive required) - contact your librarian.

Some relevant standards include:

AS/NZS ISO 14001:2004 Environmental management systems - 

Requirements with guidance for use

AS/NZS 2712:2007 Solar and heat pump water heaters - Design and construction

AS 4708:2007 Australian forestry standard

HB 203:2006 Environmental risk management

   eJournals, eBooks & other eResources

   

eJournals

Free eJournals

For a comprehensive listing of free journals go to the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) which provides access to over 400 free online journals on earth and environmental sciences.

EBSCOhost

Click the link of one of the selected journals or databases. Log in using your DEC username and password.

ANZRC

Environment Complete

Sustainability Reference Center

ProQuest Central

Click the link to the ProQuest or one of the selected journals. Log in using your DEC username and password.

 

Training toolboxes

Conservation and land management: RTD02 certificate 2
Sustainable energy

Log in using your DEC username and password. You can view or download these resources. CD-ROMs of the packages may be available at your TAFE library.

 

Gale databases

Click the link to the Gale or one of the selected journals. Log in using your DEC username and password.

eBooks

CSIRO eBooks

Log in to CSIRO eBooks using your DEC username and password with @edu at the end of your username. Once you have logged into the database, click on Browse catalogue to get the list of available eBooks, e.g.

  • In Search of sustainability
  • Sustainable gardens
  • Wildlife damage control: principles for managing vertebrate pests
  • Water use efficiency for irrigated turf

eBooks on EBSCOhost

Click the link to eBooks on EBSCOhost or any of the examples and then click on the URL. Log in using your DEC username and password:

Issues in Society

 

eReference

Oxford Reference Online

NSI students and staff access only. From home, log into Oxford Reference Online using your DEC username and password with @edu at the end of your username. Once you have logged into the database, do a keyword search or click on links to biographies, subject entries, images or links to reference works.

  • Dictionary of earth sciences
  • Dictionary of ecology
  • Dictionary of environment and conservation

 

Online videos

TVNews

Log in to TVNews via Equella or to the following Catalyst videos using your DEC username and password.

vLearn

Login to vLearn or the provided video using your DEC username and password.

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   Databases covering environmental studies subjects

Here is a selection of subject specific databases provided. For the full list of general databases and regarding instructions go to the eResources Portal.

Name Description Access

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) website. Includes statistics and some analysis of information from the National Census and other sources. Allows for the creation of local area profiles. http://www.abs.gov.au/

Freely available

Academic Search Complete is a comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 8,500 full-text periodicals, including more than 7,300 peer-reviewed journals.The database is updated daily.

DEC username and password required.

Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre - EBSCO's searchable database provides full text, and index access to many local and international magazines, newspapers and reference books. Most general subjects are covered, including Environmental studies.

DEC username and password required.

Australian Standards Online

This subscription service gives TAFE NSW students access to over 6,500 full-text Australian Standards. Search for relevant Australian Standards by visiting

http://infostore.saiglobal.com/store/

NSI student and staff access. Full-text access only in library (For downloads USB drive required) - contact your librarian

This collection provides almost 100 eBooks covering a range of topics including environmental management & sustainability.

Only for NSI students & staff.

Students: use your DEC username and password with @edu at the end of username (e.g. john.smith@edu).

Staff: use your DEC username and password with @det at the end of the username (e.g. john.smith@det).

Environment Complete offers deep coverage in applicable areas of agriculture, ecosystem ecology, energy, renewable energy sources, natural resources, marine & freshwater science, geography, pollution & waste management, environmental technology, environmental law, public policy, social impacts, urban planning, and more. The database contains full text for more than 680 journals and 120 monographs.

DEC username and password required.

GreenFILE by EBSCO Publishing gives access to scholarly and general interest titles, as well as government documents and reports on environmental topics. The database contains full text for selected titles and searchable cited references for more than 200 titles as well.

Freely available

This multi-disciplinary database provides more than 1,750 general reference publications with full text information. Covers virtually every subject area of general interest. It also includes nearly 500 full text reference books.

DEC username and password required.

Gale databases provide access to periodical and news information on a diverse set of topics. The sub-collection General OneFile includes over 6,300 full-text titles and 400 newspaper services (a total of more than 11,000 titles). Also included in the subscription is the Environmental Studies and Policy collection with more than 700 journals and reference content.

DEC username and password required.

ProQuest Central provides access to a set of databases containing more than 125 billion digital pages covering arts, literature, social science, general reference, business, science, technology, and medicine. ProQuest includes the world's largest digital newspaper archive including ANZ Newsstand and periodical databases comprising the output of more than 9,000 titles.

DEC username and password required.

Science Online presents a broad range of scientific disciplines including
* Earth Science * Environmental Science * Marine Science * Weather & Climate
through extensive essays, diagrams, biographies, experiments, definitions, images, and videos and animations.

Students: use your DEC username and password with @edu at the end of username (e.g. john.smith@edu).

Staff: use your DEC username and password with @det at the end of the username (e.g. john.smith@det).

NSI student and staff access only

The Sustainability Reference Center is a comprehensive full-text database covering all aspects of sustainability and corporate social responsibility. Offering content from more than 800 publications including journals, monographs, magazines, and trade publications.

DEC username and password required.

TVNews via Equella

TVNews indexes and abstracts Australian news items, current affairs and documentaries from free-to-air networks since 2007. You can download video content straight to your desktop or flash drive. Most programs are available the next working day. Coverage includes: Australian story, 60 minutes, Four corners, Lateline, Catalyst, Landline and all the major news broadcasts.

DEC username and password required.

vLearn via Equella

160+ vLearn videos are now available via Equella.
Subject areas covered are business, career development, hospitality & food services, anatomy, beauty services, child studies, customer service, English language, health & safety, history, HRM, nursing, nutrition, sport & recreation, tourism and more.

Only for NSI students & staff.

DEC username and password required.

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   Library catalogue

The NSW TAFE Library catalogue lists all the resources held in NSW TAFE libraries. You can search by keyword, author, title and subject and also limit searches to specific types of materials and specific college libraries. The catalogue has links to, and the addresses and contact details of, all individual NSW TAFE Libraries.

Subject headings

Catalogue links to some environmental studies subjects and availability through NSI Libraries are listed below. Please note: the search results are limited to items available in NSI Libraries. Do a new search if you want to find items held by your local library or to get results for all TAFE NSW Libraries.

 

Biodiversity conservation

Nature -- Effect of human beings on

 

Climate changes

Natural resources -- Management

 

Deforestation

Recycling (Waste, etc.)

 

Ecotourism

Refuse and refuse disposal

 

Environmental law -- New South Wales

Renewable energy sources

 

Environmental policy -- Australia

Salinity

 

Environmental protection -- Australia

Social responsibility of business

 

Environmental responsibility

Soil conservation

 

Environmentalism

Soil degradation

 

Fire ecology -- Australia

Solar energy

 

Greenhouse gas mitigation

Sustainable buildings

 

Habitat (Ecology)

Sustainable development

 

Hazardous wastes

Weeds -- Control -- Australia

 

Marine ecology

Wetland ecology

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Last updated: 01.05.2013