NSW Councils were required as part of their annual local government reporting requirements under the Local Government Act 1993, to prepare a State of the Environment Report.  The purpose of the report was to provide accurate, up-to-date and accessible information about environmental conditions, trends and pressures for each local government area.  Reporting was permitted on a regional basis that allowed Councils to ban together for the purpose of the exercise.

Habitat were engaged by a group of 15 Councils across the Riverina region to undertake the annual Report on their behalf.  The Report contained six main categories, namely Land, Atmosphere, Biodiversity, Water, Human Settlement and Cultural Heritage.  Information relating to these categories was obtained from primary local data sourced from each council supplemented by other data sourced from state and federal government agencies such as the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

The State of Environment report was one of the sources from which Councils prepared their Community Strategic Plans.