Indicators of Catchment Condition in the Intensive Land Use Zone of Australia – Intensive agricultural area

\n\nIt should be noted that this data is now somwhat dated!\n\nAreas of intensive agriculture and production forestry are typically areas\nwhere a monoculture land-use has replaced a more biologically diverse system.\nThe loss of biodiversity through agriculture is not something that can be\neasily reversed through planning and management. Remaining areas of native\nhabitat are sensitive to catchment land-use changes.\n\nAn intensive agricultural land-use coverage was obtained from the NLWR (2000)\nNational Land-Use map (1:1M). Intensive agriculture was mapped as all areas\nwith cropping or modified pasture systems.\n\nThe scale of the land-use map is relatively coarse and the data has been\ncompiled from SL land-use data mapped to grid cells based on satellite\nimagery interpretation. Reliability is variable. Intensive agriculture and\nplantation forestry cause a dramatic reduction in biodiversity. By definition,\nthe ecological integrity of an area where a monoculture dominants, is poor;\nthe indicator is unequivocal. Less intensive agriculture also undermines\nbiodiversity, but arguably not to the extent found in cropping and improved\npasture systems.\n\nThe indicator has not been validated against biotic function, but is an\nindicator that is easily understood by users. Whilst a substantial impact of\nintensive agriculture is on biotic condition it can also impact on waterways\n(water extraction and chemical transfer), and on soil structure (the ability\nof the soil to avoid hard packing or erosion). Intensive agriculture coincides\nwith good soils on gently sloping or flat land, in higher rainfall areas, or\nwhere water is available for irrigation.\n\nThe 500 km2 and 5A5 km scale maps give a well recognisable expression of the\nintensive agriculture areas of Australia. Major impacts on catchment condition\nare well expressed in the AWRC map. Impact on catchment condition are seen for\nparts of central and southern Queensland, the western slopes and plains of New\nSouth Wales, throughout most of southern and south-eastern South Australia,\ncentral and northern Tasmania, most of Victoria and south-western Western\nAustralia.Data are available as:\n\n * continental maps at 5km (0.05 deg) cell resolution for the ILZ;\n * spatial averages over CRES defined catchments (CRES, 2000) in the ILZ;\n * spatial averages over the AWRC river basins in the ILZ.\n\nSee [further metadata](http://data.daff.gov.au/anrdl/metadata_files/pa_iccilr9ab\n__06721axx.xml) for more detail.\n\n