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

\n\nIt should be noted that this data is now somwhat dated!\n\nThe overall Index of Catchment Condition was based on a combination of the 14\nindicators used for the Sub-index assessments.\n\nMethod: Indicators equal area stretched into 5 classes are added and the\nresultant grid resliced into 5 equal interval classes.\n\nDatasets included in this assessment were: sedl, pest, indu, nutr, impn, st50,\nsdeg, eros, frag, nati, prot, rden, fera, weed.\n\nThere are large, coherent areas with relatively poor condition in the wheat\nand sheep zone of Western Australia, through central and western Victoria and\nwest Gippsland, and onto the western slopes and plains of New South Wales.\n\nIn Western Australia the poorest catchments are mainly in the mid to upper\nslopes of the major catchments. This heterogeneity is masked at the AWRC basin\nscale.\n\nMost of sub-catchments in the intensive landuse zone in West Australia fall\ninto the category next to the poorest category.\n\nIn South Australia none of the sub-catchments fall into the poorest category.\n\nThe poorest areas are located in the Yorke Peninsula and in the catchments\naround Adelaide and in the south-east corner of South Australia.\n\nIn the eastern states the catchments in poorer condition are now more confined\nand disjunct, they tend to be located in the mid-slopes of the major east-west\ntrending catchments in New South Wales and south-central Victoria.\n\nIn the coastal catchments in New South Wales, the catchments in the corridor\nbetween Sydney and Goulburn and the Hunter River catchment are in the poorest\ncategory.\n\nIn Queensland, the catchments in poorer condition include the upper reaches of\nthe Condamine and Mackenzie River systems, and the more intensively developed\nlarge river basins in central Queensland to south-east Queensland (Fitzroy\ncoastal, Burnett, Mary, Maroochy, Pine and Brisbane) and smaller coastal\nbasins with developed coastal plains.\n\nSimilar to the 5 km resolution, catchments in relatively good condition again\nlie within the less intensively used parts of the assessment area (Northern\nTerritory, Cape York and inland New South Wales and South Australia).\n\nHowever, in the higher rainfall zone the influence of conserved lands is less\nand as a consequence good catchment condition areas are much more restricted.\n\nTasmania generally and in particular Southwest Tasmania, north-eastern\nVictoria, the Blue Mountains National Park, parts of the Upper Clarence Basin\nin New South Wales and the south-west of Western Australia are of relatively\nbetter condition.\n\nData 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__07321axx.xml) for more detail.\n\n