Soil permeability DSM data of the Fitzroy catchment WA, Darwin catchments and Mitchell catchment Qld generated by the Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment

Soil permeability is one of 18 attributes of soils chosen to underpin the land suitability assessment of the Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment (NAWRA) through the digital soil mapping process (DSM). Soil permeability describes the ability of a soil to transmit water internally by its least permeable layer (rate of water movement into and through the soil profile). This soil permeability raster data represents a modelled dataset of permeability as described by the National Committee on Soil and Terrain 2009 (NCST) and is derived from field measured site data and environmental covariates. Data values are: 1 Very slowly permeable, 2 Slowly permeable, 3 Moderately permeable, 4 Highly permeable. Soil permeability is a parameter used in land suitability assessments of irrigation efficiency and soil wetness (in combination with soil drainage indicating site and soil conditions that result in poor soil aeration for plant growth). This raster data provides improved soil information used to identify opportunities and promote detailed investigation for a range of sustainable regional development options and was created within the ‘Land Suitability’ activity of the CSIRO NAWRA. A companion dataset and statistics reflecting reliability of this data are also provided and can be found described in the lineage section of this metadata record. Processing information is supplied in ranger R scripts and attributes were modelled using a Random Forest approach.
The DSM process is described in the CSIRO NAWRA published report ‘Digital soil mapping of the Fitzroy, Darwin and Mitchell catchments. A technical report from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment to the Government of Australia'. The land suitability assessment this dataset underpins is described in the CSIRO NAWRA published report ‘Land suitability of the Fitzroy, Darwin and Mitchell catchments. A technical report from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment to the Government of Australia'.