Ecosystem Indicators Workflows: Building a FAIR, Modular Toolbox for Reproducible Ecological Assessment in Australia #RSAA26

Abstract: Ecosystem-specific indicators underpin ecosystem accounting, risk assessment, and environmental reporting yet their development across Australia remains fragmented. Methods are often ad-hoc, less documented, and difficult to scale across the country’s diverse ecosystems. This creates a reproducibility gap that limits scientific rigour and policy uptake. The Ecosystem Indicators Workflows project (a co-investment partnership with the ARDC, February 2026–2028) is building a modular toolbox of transparent, reproducible workflows to guide users through indicator development from raw data to analysis-ready outputs. These workflows use conceptual models to ensure alignment of ecosystem knowledge with the intended purpose and are designed with FAIR principles embedded from the outset. Particularly we aim to (a) enable integration of existing ecosystem distribution data and cross-referencing national and global ecosystem classifications, (b) adopt standard controlled vocabularies to improve the findability and semantic interoperability, and (c) use persistent identifiers and a publication process to promote reusability in the research community. In this lightning talk, I share early lessons from requirements gathering with ecologists, government agencies, and conservation managers across six institutions. Key challenges identified in this first stage of the project include the need to accommodate different user expertise levels, the variety of data types, and the accessibility of relevant data sources. The architectural choices required to balance scientific rigour with accessibility, including how we are approaching workflow modularity, and semantic alignment will be discussed. This work-in-progress invites feedback from RSEs who have navigated similar trade-offs in reproducible research infrastructure. Presenter Bio: Abhimanyu Raj Singh is a Data Ecologist with the Ecosystem Indicators Workflows (EIW) project at UNSW Sydney and EcoCommons/QCIF. He delivers workflow packages, training materials, and community engagement activities, bridging ecological science and data infrastructure. Abhimanyu is committed to open science and building technical capacity across government, academic, and industry sectors engaged in ecosystem monitoring and reporting. Dr Jose Ferrer Paris develops methods and frameworks for ecosystem and biodiversity conservation, influencing global and national policy. His research applies spatial ecology and biodiversity informatics to species distributions, camera trap data, species traits, and spatio-temporal ecosystem indicators feeding digital knowledge bases for policy, risk management, restoration, and natural capital accounting. Committed to reproducibility and open science, he shares code and data openly, supporting evidence-based decisions across diverse user communities.