Environmental Science

This research guide will provide you with starting points for finding information on environmental chemistry, ecology, and environmental analysis and management.

 Other relevant guides:
For more information contact Irene Caleb, Liaison Librarian for the School of Applied Sciences.

Background information

Find definitions and background information using a selection of dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks and introductory textbooks available online and in our Library's collection.

Books, audiovisual and journals

Use the Library catalogue when searching for books, audiovisual material and journal names. If you see 'Find it' button in the catalogue record, click on it to link to an electronic version of the title. Help is available on how to make the most of our catalogue. To check other libraries, use Libraries Australia.

Browse the catalogue records using subject headings

  • Air - pollution - -
  • Aerosols
  • Biological monitoring
  • Bioremediation
  • Chemistry, Analytic
  • Earth sciences
  • Ecological surveys
  • Ecology
  • Ecology - Australia
  • Environmental chemistry
  • Environmental degradation - -
  • Environmental science
  • Environmental toxicology
  • Freshwater ecology
  • Groundwater - -
  • Pollutants - -
  • Pollution
  • Pollution - environmental aspects
  • Salinity - -
  • Sampling
  • Soil ecology
  • Soil pollution
  • Soils - environmental aspects
  • Trace analysis
  • Water - pollution

Browse the shelves using call numbers

  • Pollution: 363.73 - -
  • Chemistry: 540
  • Geochemistry: 551.9
  • Biology: 570
  • Rainforests: 574.52642
  • Ecology : 574.5, 577
  • Forest ecology: 577.3
  • Plants: 580
  • Animals: 590
  • Environmental toxicology: 615.902
  • Soils: 631.43
  • Forests and forestry: 634.9

Suggested e-books 

Suggested audiovisual titles

  • After the goldrush, (DVD), AV 622.18409953 A258, Swanston
    Four Corners program on the Ok Tedi mine.
  • Applying environmental science: a land rehabilitation case study, (Videorecording), AV 333.7153 A652, Carlton
  • Arid inland, (Videorecording),  AV 577.54 A698, Carlton
  • Australia's amazing mangroves, (Videorecording) AV 577.698 A938, Carlton
  • The Bay, (CD-ROM), AVC 363.7394 B357, Swanston, Carlton.
    An ecological management game from Melbourne Water/CSIRO.
  • Biological seat-belts, (Videorecording) AV 333.9516 B615, Carlton
  • The blue planet, (DVD), AV 578.77 B658, Swanston
  • Catalyst on TVNews (Informit) Within the database click on Titles to select the series.
  • The ecosystem, (Videorecording), AV 570 O93, Carlton
  • Fate of the forests, (Videorecording), AV 574.5264209946 F252, Bundoora
  • Five ways to save the world (DVD) AV 363.73874 F565, Swanston, Bundoora
  • The living planet, (DVD), AV 508 A883, Swanston
  • Muddy waters: life & death on the Great Barrier Reef, (Videorecording), AV 557.7270994 M943, Swanston
  • Nature of Australia, (Videorecording) AV 508.94 N285, Swanston, Bundoora
  • The planet (DVD) AV 363.73874 P712, Swanston
  • Preserving the legacy series, (Videorecording), Author Browse search on the library catalogue on: INTELECOM, eg. Introduction to waste stream management; Water; Pollution prevention: clearing the air.
  • Rainforest : the amazing world within, (Videorecording), AV 574.5264209943 R156.T5, Bundoora
  • Reclaiming our earth, (Videorecording) AV 631.4160994 R299, Carlton, Bundoora
  • Secret world: the river red gum, (Videorecording), AV 574.526420994 S446, Bundoora
  • Something in the air, (Videorecording), AV 363.730994 S696, Swanston, Bundoora
  • Salinity (DVD), AV 631.4160994 S165 Swanston, Bundoora
  • The salty country, (Videorecording), AV 631.416 S179, Swanston, Bundoora
  • Rachel Carson's Silent spring, (Videorecording), AV 632.95 C321 Swanston
  • Water: the drop of life, (Videorecording), AV 553.7 W324, Bundoora, Swanston
  • See also Audiovisual collection in the Library (http://www.rmit.edu.au/library/av/)

Suggested journals and e-journals

Databases

Databases give subject access to information found in journals, conference papers, newspapers, reports and other publications. Some databases provide the full text of publications online, others only index journals or provide summaries of the articles. In many cases you can link to the full text by clicking on the 'Find it' button.

Access: The databases listed below are available to RMIT students and staff on and off campus. (NDS login and password are required for remote access.  More databases can be found on Search it.

Key databases for this subject

  • Informit Online - major source for Australian information. Databases relevant to environmental science include:
    • Environmental Abstracts (EVA) - bibliographic database produced by the EPA Victoria Library.
      Subject coverage includes air pollution and quality, salinity, hazardous wastes, recycling, waste management and disposal, water pollution, environmental assessment, and pollution control.
    • Agriculture and Natural Resources Online - the ANR-Index (formerly ABOA and Streamline), is an Australian bibliographic database which covers all aspects of land, vegetation and water resources including urban water, wastewater and irrigation.
    • APAFT: Australian Public Affairs Full Text (Informit)
      Contains full text of major Australian journals and magazines.
    • Informit eLibrary Collections
  • CSA Illumina - follow the Specific Databases link to select those relevant to environmental sciences.
    • Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management - a collection of 14 databases. Coverage includes scientific journals, conference proceedings, reports, books and government publications. 
    • Aqualine is not included in the Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management collection.  Select this for topics relating to water resources, water and wastewater treatment, water pollution.
    • TOXLINE (CSA) - topics covered include: Air pollution; Environmental chemicals and pollutants; Mutagenicity Pesticides and herbicides
  • Engineering Village2 (Elsevier)  Ei Village hosts the Geobase database which indexes the literature on geography, geology and ecology. Compendex (engineering including chemical and environmental engineering) can be searched at the same time and duplicates removed.
  • Science Direct - Large full text multidisciplinary database. 
  • Web of Science - the Science Citation Index within Web of Science covers over 9000 key journals across all science and engineering disciplines.  In addition to keyword and author searching it allows cited reference searching which is useful for finding related articles.
  • SciFinder Scholar Provides the most accurate and comprehensive chemical and related scientific information. Coverage includes journal articles and patents, substance data, chemical reactions, chemical regulatory data and chemical suppliers. Access on campus only. May not be available in School computer laboratories.

Other recommended databases

  • Science Journals (Proquest) - General coverage of all aspects of science and technology.
  • Scopus - Multidisciplinary database. Coverage includes over 14 000 peer reviewed journals in the physical, life and health sciences. Cited reference searching from 1996.
  • ECOTOX Database (http://www.epa.gov/ecotox/) - EPA's database of chemical toxicity data for aquatic and terrestrial life. 'References' lists the journal articles, reports etc from which the data was obtained.
  • Agricola - Index to the literature of agriculture and allied disciplines from the US National Agriculture Library.

Contents Page Services

Contents page services add the contents pages from thousands of journals to their databases on a daily basis.  These databases allow you to register and then set up a "journal alert" in which the the latest contents pages of specified journals are emailed to you.  It is also possible to set up a "search alert" in which a search is run on a regular basis and the results emailed to you.  Other databases may provide a similar service, look out for links to "Alerts" or "My Profile" on the database welcome page.

  • Current Contents  To set up journal alerts, select My Journal List from the drop down box at the top of the page.
    •   To set up a search alert, do your search then select Search History, then Save History.
  • Ingenta Connect  The option to Receive New Issue Alert will appear on the record for each journal title.  The Search Alerts Option appears when you select Search History.

News

  • New Scientist - select the Science Direct option for up-to-date full text access to the magazine
  • Science Daily - online magazine and Web portal devoted to science, technology, and medicine.
  • Proquest ANZ Newsstand Full-text newspapers and newswires from Australia and New Zealand. Browse issues or keyword search for topics.
    Factiva provides full-text access to major Australian and international newspapers.
  • TVNews (Informit) Access to Australian TV news and documentary series. Within the database click on Titles to view a list of the programs available.
  • See also our guide to News and newspapers (http://www.rmit.edu.au/library/reference/news/)

Reports, guidelines, test methods and data

Quick facts

  • The Australian environment directory: a comprehensive guide to the environment sector in Australia,  REF 333.720994 A938, Carlton
  • Australian natural resources atlas (http://www.anra.gov.au/)
  • National Pollutant Inventory (http://www.npi.gov.au/) - Australia's national database of pollutant emissions, searchable by postcode.
  • EPA: Substance Registry System (http://www.epa.gov/srs/)
  • EPA/OPPT Chemical Fact Sheets (http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/chemfact/)
  • IPCS INCHEM - Pesticide Data Sheets  (http://www.inchem.org/pages/pds.html)
  • MSDS plus CHEMINFO on CCOHS Web Information Service MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets) for chemical products and more detailed information on common workplace chemicals.
  • Get MSDS.com (http://www.ilpi.com/msds/index.html) provides an FAQ on Material Safety Datasheets and lists 100 sites for MSDS and other chemical safety information. The list is organised by category - General Sites, Government and Non-Profit Sites, Chemical Manufacturers and Suppliers, Pesticides and Fertilizers, and Miscellaneous.
  • AusStats provides access to all Australian Bureau of Statistics Publications
    • Reports are also available in print, REF 319.4 A938, Business and Swanston
    • Census data (CLIB'91 & '96) available from standalone terminals in Bundoora, Business and Swanston

Standards

  • Australian Standards Online contains the full text of all current Australian Standards and draft Australian standards to which Standards Australia holds the copyright. ISO and IEC standards are also indexed, but the full text is not available online.
  • Annual book of ASTM standards, REF 620.112 A512, Swanston

Legal resources

Theses

Patents

  • Australian Patents - IP Australia (http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/)
    • AU Published Patent Data Searching  (http://apa.hpa.com.au:8080/ipapa/asearch) - searchable database of Australian published patents.  Links to full text where available. 
    • Patsearch (http://pericles.ipaustralia.gov.au/ols/searching/patsearch/search_page.jsp) - Australian patent applications.  Full text unavailable.
  • United States Patent and Trademark Office (http://www.uspto.gov) - searchable database of US patents with full text of both published patents and patent applications provided in TIFF format.
  • Europe’s Network of Patent Databases (http://ep.espacenet.com) - provides access to published patent documents from three databases: the EP (European Patent Office) database, the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) database and the worldwide database (72 different countries and regions).  English titles and abstracts are provided for non-English language patents. Full text provided in pdf format.

Search engines and open archives

Google Scholar - Searches scholarly publications from university, government and academic publisher sites. The Google Scholar link provided here authenticates you as an RMIT user and so also provides access to a range of RMIT-subscribed e-journals.
Scirus - A comprehensive science-specific search engine. It includes e-print archives, scientists' home pages and institutional repositories.
OAIster Search - International union catalogue of freely available, difficult-to-access, academically-oriented digital resources.
Australian Research Online is a search engine for Australian digital repositories.

Websites of interest

Subject gateways

Doing Research

To locate the latest books on assignment writing and research try searching the Library catalogue using the following subject headings: Study Skills, Report Writing, Technical Writing, Research, Research - Methodology, Dissertations Academic, Dissertations Academic - Authorship, Academic Writing, Authorship - Style Manuals.

  • Assignment and thesis writing, 808.02 A547, Brunswick, Bundoora, Business, Swanston
  • From research to manuscript : a guide to scientific writing, 808.0665 K19, Bundoora
  • Guide to the successful thesis and dissertation, online via netLibrary, or 808.02 M447, Bundoora, Bundoora East, Swanston
  • The hand of science : academic writing and its rewards, 808.0665 C947, Bundoora, Swanston
  • How to write and illustrate a scientific paper, 808.0665 G982, Bundoora, Swanston
  • How to write & publish a scientific paper, 808.0665 D274, Bundoora, Swanston
  • Introduction to research methods, 370.78 B967, Bundoora,  Business, Swanston
  • Practical research : planning and design, 001.42 L484, Bundoora, Business, Carlton, Swanston
  • Practical research methods, online via netLibrary, or 001.42 D272, Bundoora, Business, Swanston
  • The research student's guide to success, 808.02 C957, Bundoora, Swanston
  • Scientific papers and presentations, 501.4 D263, Bundoora, Swanston
  • Starting research : an introduction to academic research and dissertation writing, 808.066 P923, Bundoora, Swanston
  • Your research project : a step-by-step guide for the first-time researcher, 808.02 W211, Bundoora, Swanston
  • Style manual for authors, editors and printers, 808.02 S938, guide to the Harvard style available in general and reference (REF) collections at all Libraries
  • See also: