Coordination of land use mapping of key implementation areas. Final Report BRR6.
Prepared by Lucy Randall and Michele Barson
October 2001
Citation:
Randall, L and Barson, M (2001). Coordination of land use mapping of key implementation areas. Final Report BRR6. National Land and Water Resources Audit, Canberra.
PDF file
Executive Summary
Introduction
Land use data are a key input into a wide range of resource issues, including sustainability, productivity and degradation. These data are integral to providing regional assessments of land resources for the Audit projects as well as diverse applications, such as State of the Environment reporting and carbon accounting for the Australian Greenhouse Office.
This project coordinated the production of catchment scale land use mapping in the Audit's Key Implementation Areas by establishing the specifications and procedures for mapping and undertaking data quality assurance for the final data sets. The final data sets cover 35% of Australia.
Key findings
The land use mapping projects provided catchment scale land use information for the Key Implementation Areas and enabled the development the Australian Land Use Management Classification, technical specifications, mapping procedures and quality assurance for future land use mapping studies.
Linking land management practices to land use via the geocoding of agricultural census data enabled spatially explicit commodity mapping for 73% of agricultural areas in Gippsland and land management practices for 11% of the cropped areas (Randall and Barson, 2001). This project demonstrated that geocoding of Australian Bureau of Statistics agricultural census could provide valuable data on commodities and land management practices at catchment scale without compromising ABS' confidentiality requirements.
Applications
Land use mapping is being used extensively by State, regional and local natural resource management agencies. For example, land use data are being used in land planning in the Fitzroy, to identify suitable areas for expansion of the olive industry in the Mt Lofty Ranges and to plan locust spraying programs and emergency response plans for Newcastle disease in WA. In Gippsland the data are being used to quantify sediment and nutrient inputs to streams, to improve the management of water quality.
The Audit funded mapping has provided an impetus for catchment scale mapping across the continent.
Revision and improvements in land use mapping have fed back into the Australian Land Use Management Classification, resulting in a consistent national set of specifications and procedures. Several revisions have been made to the land use classification and in October 2000, it was agreed that the classification should be provided to the Australian Spatial Data Infrastructure to be adopted as a national standard. The methods, specifications and classification for land use mapping will be published in CSIRO's handbook "Guidelines for Conducting Surveys" in 2001.
Limitations of the Key Implementation Area data include:
- Unattributed land uses eg rural residential areas in Gippsland, roads and rivers in Fitzroy
- WA land uses were mapped on the basis of commodity value so that agricultural land use polygons represent the highest value commodity for each property rather than showing all the land uses present on a farm. This contrasts with the other KIA data, which shows dominant land use by area for each paddock.
- The lack of independent validation of land use mapping (with the exception of South Australia).
- Limited attribution of pasture types for the "Grazing of native pastures" class where tertiary classes have not been identified yet. These native pastures can range from grassland through to woodlands.
- Multiple uses, ie where areas are under two or more land uses such as forest areas used for both wood production and recreation, have not been captured.
The relevant State departments are addressing some of these limitations, such as addition the rural residential areas in Gippsland or by capturing multiple uses.
Recommendations
Whole-of-landscape land use data captured in a consistent, repeatable procedure and at appropriate catchment scales is a major input to understanding and addressing AustraliaÕs natural resources management issues.. It is recommended land use mapping be extended to provide continental coverage at appropriate scales:
- 1:25,000 or better in horticultural, irrigation and peri-urban areas
- 1:100,000 for broadacre agriculture
- 1:250,000 in the pastoral zone
The land use data should be updated at an appropriate frequency determined by the user needs and rates of land use change. This would be expected to highest in coastal and peri-urban areas or where opportunities for expansion in irrigation exist. The expansion and extension of land use mapping is already underway (see Figure 1).
The geocoding of the 2001 Agricultural Census should be undertaken, followed by catchment scale mapping of commodities and land management practices. Additional land management practice data have been collected through the 2001 census for cropping land uses, whilst grazing management practice questions will be tested in the 2002 Agricultural Commodities Survey.
References
Randall, L. and Barson, M. (2001). Mapping agricultural commodities and land management practices from geocoded agricultural census data.. National Land and Water Resources Audit, Canberra.
Acknowledgments
The land use mapping was carried out jointly with the following State agencies:
Western Australia - Agriculture Western Australia(Beeston et al. 2001)
Fitzroy basin (Queensland) - Department of Natural Resources (Calvert et al. 2000)
Mt Lofty Ranges (South Australia) - Primary Industries and Resources South Australia (Flavel et al. 2000)
Gippsland (Victoria) - Department of Natural Resources and Environment (Sposito et al. 2000)
The geocoding of Gippsland was carried out in conjunction with Australian Bureau of Statistics. The financial support and assistance provided by these agencies and the Audit through the Natural Heritage Trust is gratefully acknowledged.