Australian Natural Resources Information 2002
National Land and Water Resources Audit, 2002
ISBN: 0 642 37131 8
Consistent Australia-Wide Data for Natural Resource Management
Government agencies spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year collecting and maintaining natural resource data.
Despite this investment, data collected by different agencies—particularly in the natural resources area—often use different standards to collect, store, document and provide access to data.
Inconsistent data as illustrated in Figure 6, increases the time and cost to compare areas, solve cross-region problems or analyse trends in the status and condition of natural resources over time. These problems occur at all scales, whether working in a catchment or undertaking a national assessment.
As more information becomes available, organisations and communities want to compare information across regions. Users of natural resource information are demanding:
- consistency between related data. For example, the location of stream gauging stations should match the location of streams in the database;
- seamless maps not interrupted by artefacts such as map sheet boundaries or State/Territory borders; and
- consistent descriptions of similar features so that a feature is defined the same way across Australia.
Data need to be developed so that they are consistent and meet criteria for the Australian Spatial Data Infrastructure ensuring that agencies and the community can achieve maximum value for money through multiple use.
The following case studies—land use, soils and salinity—discuss the development of some of the Australia-wide databases through Audit projects. The Australian Water Resource Assessment 2000 (NLWRA 2001a) discusses the development of databases concerning water use, quality and availability. The Australian Native Vegetation Assessment 2001 (NLWRA 2001e) discusses the development of a database about native vegetation and provides an assessment of gaps in the data.
Case study 1. Land use in Australia
An understanding of the impact of human settlement and resource development across Australia is a fundamental requirement for the assessment of condition and trend of land and water resources.
Mapping land use pattern provides a basis for characterising Australia's landscape and starting to understand agricultural production and land management practices.
Land use information provides input to:
- planning and implementing different land use practices;
- assessing the suitability of changes in land use with respect to climate, soil, slope and water availability;
- assessing environmental impacts and land at risk from land degradation (e.g.salinity, flood, drought and erosion);
- assessing agricultural productivity and opportunities for diversification; and
- national, State and regional reporting about land use patterns, intensity and diversity.
National classification
As part of the Audit's land use mapping projects, workshops were held with government agencies to develop a classification to consistently map land use for natural resource applications. This classification was trialed in a set of regional mapping projects and then applied in the development of a national map of land use.
Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry - Australia, coordinated the development of the Australian Land Use Management Classification (ALUMC Version 4, October 2000) in collaboration with Commonwealth, State and Territory agencies. This classification was used for Australia-wide and regional maps of land use. Use of a consistent classification ensures that regions can be compared and that regional information can be aggregated for compiling national summaries.
Australian Land Use Management Classification
- Designed for users who are interested in processes such as land management practices, and/or outputs such as commodities.
- Based on identifying types and levels of intervention in the landscape since European settlement, rather than descriptions of land use based on outputs.
- Allows land use classes on the maps to be aggregated or disaggregated. The classification has a three-tiered hierarchical structure. Primary and secondary classes in the classification relate to land use (the prime use of the land is defined in terms of the management objectives of the land manager). Tertiary classes can include commodity groups, commodities, land management practice, or land cover information.
Regional land use mapping for use at the catchment scale
Regional scale land use maps for Gippsland in Victoria (Figure 7), the Fitzroy river catchment in Queensland, Mt Lofty Ranges in South Australia, and the whole of Western Australia were compiled in partnership with State agencies. These maps cover 35% of Australia, show land use at 1:100 000 scale and are appropriate for use at the catchment scale.
The Fitzroy, Gippsland and Mt Lofty mapping projects were used to develop, test and refine the national land use classification.
Land use and vegetation were mapped together in Western Australia. The vegetation data were used in Australian Native Vegetation Assessment 2001 (NLWRA 2001e).
Appropriate use of the data
Regional-scale land use data are limited by:
- limited validation and checking of the maps in the field; and
- resolution of satellite and/or property information where it is too coarse to identify intensive and small acreage uses. Identification of small parcels of land producing a range of commodities or that have more than one crop each year requires collection of detailed map data more frequently.
Australia-wide land use mapping
The last national land use map was produced by Geoscience Australia more than twenty years ago (Division of National Mapping 1979). To support broad national-scale assessments, a database of agricultural and non-agricultural land use across Australia was developed for the year 1996/1997.
The database contains information about the distribution of land uses, protected areas, broad tenure categories, forest types, agricultural commodities and irrigated areas.
The resultant map (Figure 8) has a resolution of approximately 1.1km.
Appropriate use of the data
Due to the modelling approach used to map land use nationally, data have some limitations that must be considered before use or updating.
- The small number of control sites collected has limited the validation of the data.
- Satellite imagery used to model land use has a resolution of approximately 1.1 km so that small acreages, including patches of horticulture and mixed land uses, are not identified.
- A primary input to the modelling of land use are agricultural statistics, from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and summarised by statistical local areas. This information does not show the exact location of the land use. Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry - Australia and the Australian Bureau of Statistics have examined the feasibility of linking agricultural statistics to information about the location of farm boundaries.
- The national land use map is a snapshot in time and further mapping is essential for monitoring the use and management of land. Future mapping is likely to be optimised by using more detailed regional information.
Maintaining our investment—next steps
Australia's pattern of land use is continually changing in response to management decisions. The Australian Land Use Management Classification provides an Australia-wide framework for classifying land use and for monitoring change.
The national land use map must be updated for a continued ability to answer questions about the use and management of land in Australia.
Mapping and collation of land use information is based on continuing collaboration and partnerships with all contributing jurisdictions.
Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry - Australia coordinates the Executive Steering Committee for Australian Land Use Mapping with national, State and Territory government representatives. The committee:
- promotes and coordinates funding and resources required for acquiring and distributing land use data as part of the Australian Spatial Data Infrastructure;
- ensures an effective flow of information on the development of nationally consistent land use data and works with ANZLIC - the Spatial Information Council to ensure that data are assembled, maintained and delivered in a nationally consistent way;
- continues consultation with users of data and across agencies and jurisdictions;
- establishes links with data users to ensure that products continue to be relevant; and
- cooperates with other coordinators of fundamental data to identify and, as far as possible, foster integration of data.
There is no plan to complete another Australia-wide 'snapshot' of land use. It is recommended that the current map be updated every five years using the best available regional-scale data, to support national assessments and reporting as well as be useful at a catchment scale.
Table 2. Compliance of the 1996/97 Land Use of Australia map with standards for the Australian Spatial Data Infrastructure.
| Access | ||
|---|---|---|
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Are the data easily accessible? | |
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Are the data documented? | |
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| Supply | ||
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Are licence arrangements in place that ensure that the information are accessible, while protecting copyright, intellectual property, privacy and confidentiality? | |
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| Quality | ||
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Do the data meet national guidelines or standards? | |
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| Maintenance | ||
| |
Are there national coordination arrangements in place to help ensure that data are being assembled, maintained and delivered in a nationally consistent way without duplication of effort? | |
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Are custodians of the data maintaining the data according to national guidelines or standards? | |
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Case study 2. The Australian Soil Resources Information System
Australia's soils are generally not capable of sustained agricultural production without additional physical and/or chemical inputs. Many of Australia's land surfaces are ancient and their soils are strongly weathered and infertile. Wind or water can easily erode them and many are susceptible to leaching of vital nutrients.
In light of issues such as dryland salinity, soil structure decline, inherent soil infertility and the nutrient enrichment of our waterways, many scientists and agriculturalists have concluded that there is a mismatch between the Australian environment and the introduced European-based agricultural systems. To address this mismatch or imbalance, we must first understand the properties of our soil, water and biological resources and how they interact.
The need for better maps of soil information
Until now, Australia did not have a nationally consistent information base on which the relationships between soil, water and biological resources could be adequately quantified or described. This understanding is critical for effective management of resources at a landscape and ecosystem scale, and achievement of sustainable production and environmental protection.
Before the establishment of the Audit, the best Australia-wide coverage of soils information was the 1:2000000 scale Atlas of Australian Soils by CSIRO in 1968. This information was inadequate to answer important natural resource management questions at a scale relevant to regional planning and development.
In response to this gap, the Audit initiated the development of the Australian Soil Resources Information System. The Australian Soils Resources Information System was designed to be a consistent database for the intensive land use zone. It uses the extensive soil point and survey map data that have been collected and collated by State and Territory agencies since the early 1970s. Much of this information has been collected over the last ten years through national programs such as the National Landcare Program and more recently the Natural Heritage Trust.
What is the Australian Soil Resources Information System?
The Australian Soil Resources Information System contains a set of geographically distributed estimates of soil properties—those most commonly required to characterise, model or predict processes that drive plant productivity, measure resource sustainability or control rate of resource degradation.
Mapped soil properties include:
- amount of organic matter;
- total phosphorus;
- total nitrogen;
- texture;
- depth;
- density of dry soil;
- percentage of clay;
- percentage of silt;
- percentage of sand;
- pH;
- ability to resist pH change;
- water storage capacity;
- permeability of the soil; and
- erodibility.
The Australian Soil Resources Information System also contains attributes that indicate data quality.
A detailed description of each of the attributes is available in the data catalogue in Appendix 1.
How can the Australian Soil Resources Information System be used?
Maps of soil properties were used by the Audit in the preparation of comprehensive assessments of:
- water-borne soil erosion and sediment/nutrient transport;
- present and projected extent of soil acidification; and
- landscape productivity.
These are reported in the Australian Agricultural Assessment 2001 (NLWRA 2001d).
Sediment and nutrient delivery
In their natural state, Australian soils are generally shallow, infertile and have a fragile structure. When the soil surface is inadequately protected by vegetation, they are prone to erosion by wind and water.
A major issue in Australian land management is water-borne soil erosion and the resulting degradation of land and water resources. As soil provides the structural support and source of water and nutrients for plants, erosion may result in significant reductions of productivity.
Soil erosion also has off-site effects, including degradation of water quality in streams and water storages by increasing the level of sediments and nutrients.
We need to understand the consequences of changes in land use and climate on soil erosion in order to minimise the decline of soil productivity and water quality and optimise the use of resources for soil conservation and management and sustainability of land use. Knowledge about the sources and rates of erosion under past and present conditions is essential.
The Audit assessment of water-borne soil erosion (NLWRA 2001d) used soil erodibility information (Figure 10) derived from the Australian Soil Resources Information System including several primary input attributes and total phosphorus data to model sediment and nutrient delivery from hill-slopes to streams and ultimately estuaries.
Acidification
Soil acidification insidiously reduces agricultural productivity. In agricultural ecosystems, acidification is caused by actions that break the natural carbon and nitrogen cycles.
The soil acidification process is primarily controlled by soil type, land use and land management. The Audit developed a model that predicts the risk of acidification and allows it to be mapped. The model is based on the Australian Soil Resources Information System attributes including the distribution of acid soils (pH) (Figure 11), capacity for soils to buffer against acidifying practices (organic carbon and percent clay) and plant yield functions (soil pH and other related characteristics).
Landscape productivity
Sustainable management of Australia's natural resources requires knowledge and information on the geographic distribution of stores of nature's raw materials—carbon, water and nutrients, the major processes that control these balances and how these balances change in response to land use.
To model the cycles of carbon, nutrients and water in the landscape, information was used that quantitatively and geographically defines terrain, climate, land use and soil stores for water and nutrients. Soil organic carbon and available phosphorus attributes were incorporated into a model that generated estimates of the soil and litter pools of nutrients and water.
Maintaining our investment—next steps
Development of the Australian Soil Resources Information System was possible because most assessors of land resources have been collecting comparable land and soil data to standard attributes and definitions.
Data about soils continue to be collected. If we wish to improve our capacity to answer questions about the soils supporting agricultural landscapes, it is essential that new data are also consistent and comparable Australia-wide.
Maintaining and developing technical standards
In recognition of the need for maintenance of standards, the Australian Collaborative Land Evaluation Program was established in 1992 to coordinate the development, update and review of technical standards for land resource assessment.
Committing to data management
By the mid-1990s the Australian Collaborative Land Evaluation Program in conjunction with Western Australia and Queensland developed the Soil Information Transfer and Evaluation System in response to a growing demand for land resource information across agencies and Australia. The Soil Information Transfer and Evaluation System is a data exchange protocol for soil point data. It provides a standard for exchange of data between all State/Territory or Commonwealth agencies. Without these standards, the Australian Soil Resources Information System would not have been feasible within the time frame.
Technical standards need to be extended and maintained as the demand for comparable, quality assured data continues to grow particularly at the regional scale.
Implementation of data quality standards
Ninety-five percent of the Australian Soil Resources Information System project was spent on 'cleaning up' data. Inadequate data in mandatory or important data fields, and inconsistent adherence to data standards remain a significant issue for Australian land resource databases.
An essential activity for the national coordinators of the Australian Soil Resources Information System is to ensure the implementation of technical standards so that the quality of input data is enhanced.
Data to information—data analysis and reporting tools
The Australian Soil Resources Information System analysis and reporting tools will need to be developed or redeveloped and maintained to improve the ability of soil properties data to be used by people other than technical practitioners within research and government agencies. These tools could take the form of user guidelines or, for more advanced applications, computer-aided decision support systems that use the underlying Australian Soil Resources Information System and other, more extensive data.
Before committing to ongoing development of analysis tools, a comprehensive understanding of user needs, and a commitment to maintain any tools developed is required.
Bridging the gap—adding to the information base
Continuous improvement in development and adoption of technical standards in natural resource assessment should be encouraged. However, it is important that the considerable legacy of soil data is not alienated by the adoption of technical standards that do not maximise the use of this historical data.
Table 3. Compliance of the Australian Soil Resources Information System with standards for the Australian Spatial Data Infrastructure.
| Access | ||
|---|---|---|
| |
Are the data easily accessible? | |
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||
| |
Are the data documented? | |
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||
| Supply | ||
| |
Are licence arrangements in place that ensure that the information are accessible, while protecting copyright, intellectual property, privacy and confidentiality? | |
|
||
| Quality | ||
| |
Do the data meet national guidelines or standards? | |
|
||
| Maintenance | ||
| |
Are there national coordination arrangements in place to help ensure that data are being assembled, maintained and delivered in a nationally consistent way without duplication of effort? | |
|
||
| |
Are custodians of the data maintaining the data according to national guidelines or standards? | |
|
||
Case study 3. Australian Dryland Salinity Assessment 2000
Dryland salinity is most widespread in agricultural areas where it may dramatically reduce farm production. It also affects other land uses, damages infrastructure (e.g. buildings, roads, bridges and sewerage lines), and reduces the diversity of native plants and animals.
Dryland salinity is linked to other degradation issues such as soil erosion, eutrophication of streams and loss of riparian vegetation.
Information about the distribution of salinity hazard is fundamental to effectively set national priorities and targets for the $1.4 billion investment by the Commonwealth, States and Territories in the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality.
A decade of dramatic improvements in knowledge
Dramatic improvements in our knowledge of the distribution of dryland salinity risks and hazards over the past ten years have allowed investment in salinity and land management to be much better targeted.
1992
The Australian Surveying and Land Information Group published a map of dryland salinity (Figure 12). This was one of the first attempts to compose a national map of salinity, and was based on maps from many sources. Differences in methods used for classifying salinity are clearly seen across the Northern Territory/Queensland border.
Click on image to enlarge
2000
A map of land use-induced salinity hazard under cropping and pastures (Figure 13) was prepared by the Bureau of Rural Sciences for the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality. The map was based on modelling possible areas of salinity hazard based on climate, terrain, soil and land use types.
2001
The Audit published a national compilation of the best available dryland salinity mapping from State and Territory agencies based on information about trends in groundwater levels (NLWRA 2001b) (Figure 14).
This map is more useful for targeting investment in dryland salinity management than earlier maps as it identifies those areas at higher risk or hazard of dryland salinity and is based on the most up-to-date information and scientific advice from State and Territory agencies. The map is supported by detailed groundwater trend data in many regions.
Users are now able to use the Australian Natural Resources Atlas to explore the salinity data in detail and compare this to other information in a region of interest.
As reported in the assessment of dryland salinity by the Audit (NLWRA 2001b) there is no consistent approach to monitoring the extent of and trends in dryland salinity. Arrangements are required to update the data in a nationally consistent way. The Australian Dryland Salinity Assessment 2000 identifies the elements required for better collection, analysis and reporting systems.
Table 4. Compliance of the Australian Dryland Salinity Assessment 2000 salinity map with standards for the Australian Spatial Data Infrastructure.
| Access | ||
|---|---|---|
| |
Are the data easily accessible? | |
|
||
| |
Are the data documented? | |
|
||
| Supply | ||
| |
Are licence arrangements in place that ensure that the information are accessible, while protecting copyright, intellectual property, privacy and confidentiality? | |
|
||
| Quality | ||
| X | Do the data meet national guidelines or standards? | |
|
||
| Maintenance | ||
| X | Are there national coordination arrangements in place to help ensure that data are being assembled, maintained and delivered in a nationally consistent way without duplication of effort? | |
|
||
| X | Are custodians of the data maintaining the data according to national guidelines or standards? | |
|
||
Building Australia-wide natural resource data—the next steps
The major Australia-wide databases developed by the Audit—land use, soil properties, dryland salinity, native vegetation, water resources, river condition, and estuaries—are fundamental components of a natural resource data infrastructure. These data were used as inputs to many of the Audit assessments including analyses of agricultural productivity, condition of environments, biodiversity and natural resource management.
Data from Audit projects are accessible and documented. They use national guidelines or standards where these exist.
Consistent, Australia-wide natural resource data must be maintained and updated to recognised standards to support applications including:
- future natural resource assessments;
- programs such as the Natural Heritage Trust and the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality;
- local, regional and national State of the Environment reporting; and
- monitoring systems such as the Australian Collaborative Rangeland Information System.
Major Audit data have been assessed against criteria for the development of the Australian Spatial Data Infrastructure (Table 5). All seven sets of data need maintenance programs developed if they are to continue to support these diverse requirements. At a minimum, the Australia-wide views of these data should be updated every five years to align with statutory reporting obligations including the Australian State of the Environment report, and the population and housing census.
Table 5. Assessment of major Audit databases against criteria for the development of the Australian Spatial Data Infrastructure.
| Land use | Soil properties | Native vegetation type and extent | Water use, allocation and availability | Dryland salinity risk and hazard | River health | Estuaries | |
| Access | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Are the data easily accessible? Are the data documented? | |||||||
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| Supply | |||||||
| Are licence arrangements in place that ensure that the map information is accessible, while protecting copyright, intellectual property, privacy and confidentiality? | |||||||
| |
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| Quality | |||||||
| Do the data meet national guidelines or standards? | |||||||
| |
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X | X | X | |
| Maintenance | |||||||
| Are there national coordination arrangements in place to help ensure that data are being assembled, maintained and delivered in a nationally consistent way without duplication of effort? | |||||||
| |
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|
X | X | X | |
| Are custodians of the data maintaining the data according to national guidelines or standards? | |||||||
| |
|
X | X | X | X | X | |
| Are regular Australia-wide updates planned? | |||||||
| X | X | X | X | X | X | X | |
| arrangements are in place X arrangements are yet to be resolved |
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Recommendations
Building fundamental data
It is recommended that government agencies adopt an integrated and sustainable approach that maintains the existing investment in data and progressively builds a consistent infrastructure of natural resource data.
Major Australia-wide databases developed by the Audit must be maintained and updated if they are to continue to support government, community and industry requirements for natural resource data. It is recommended that within available resources:
Water
- The Natural Heritage Ministerial Board, through the Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council, to develop a program of five-yearly updates of the Australia-wide information system of surface water and groundwater use, allocation, and availability. The information system should be based on the best available regional data, preferably routinely updated by States and Territories as part of their water resource management activities. Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry - Australia is the national coordinator of the Australian Water Resources Assessment database developed by the Audit. Geoscience Australia is the national coordinator of the surface water management area boundaries data.
Native vegetation
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The Natural Heritage Ministerial Board, through the Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council, to develop a program of five-yearly updates of Australia-wide information about native vegetation type and extent based on the best available regional data. Integration of native and non-native vegetation data can best be facilitated and coordinated through the Executive Steering Committee on Australian Vegetation Information.
Environment Australia is the national coordinator of the native vegetation database developed by the Audit.
Land use and management
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The Natural Heritage Ministerial Board, through the Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council, to develop a program of five-yearly updates of the Australia-wide map of land use and land management practices based on the best available regional data. The next update should commence in 2003 and be based on land use in 2001/02.
Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry - Australia is the national coordinator of national land use mapping developed by the Audit.
Dryland salinity
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The Natural Heritage Ministerial Board through Agriculture Fisheries Forestry - Australia in partnership with the National Dryland Salinity Program and State and Territory agencies to maintain and improve currency, quality and availability of Australia-wide maps of groundwater flow systems and dryland salinity extent. The program should include data collected through detailed regional mapping and assessments being undertaken in the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality.
Soils
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The Natural Heritage Ministerial Board, through the CSIRO Division of Land and Water as coordinator of the national soil information system and in cooperation with Commonwealth, State and Territory agencies through the Australian Collaborative Land Evaluation Program, to ensure the maintenance and improvement of the currency, quality and availability of data in the Australian Soil Resources Information System.
Rivers
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The Natural Heritage Ministerial Board, through the Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council, to develop a program of five-yearly updates of the Australia-wide information system about rivers and their condition. The program would be based on a nationally agreed set of attributes and assessment methods and undertaken in partnership with the Cooperative Research Centre for Freshwater Ecology, and Commonwealth, State and Territory agencies.
Environment Australia is the national coordinator of the river condition database developed by the Audit.
Estuaries
-
The Natural Heritage Ministerial Board, through the Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council, to develop a program of five-yearly updates of the Australia-wide information system about estuaries and their condition.
Geoscience Australia is the national coordinator of the OzEstuaries database developed by the Audit.
Efficiently building fundamental data
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The Natural Heritage Ministerial Board, through the Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council, to request that ANZLIC - the Spatial Information Council support coordinators of Australia-wide databases by advising on technical standards and guidelines to build a network of information systems. The information systems should link to the most up-to-date natural resource data and avoid duplication of effort within the framework for the Australian Spatial Data Infrastructure.