NSW Land Cover Theme

NSW Land Cover ThemeLand cover is the visible, biophysical cover on the Earth’s surface including trees, shrubs, grasses, soils, exposed rocks and water bodies, as well as anthropogenic elements\nsuch as plantations, crops and built environments. Land cover\nchanges for many reasons, including\nseasonal weather, severe weather events such as cyclones, floods and\nfires, and human activities such as\nmining, agriculture and urbanisation.\n\n \n\nRemote sensing data recorded\nover a period of time allows\nthe observation of land cover dynamics. Classifying these responses\nprovides\na robust and repeatable way\nof characterising land cover types. These complement on ground survey where\navailable.\n\n \n\nDatasets\nincluded in the Land Cover Theme:\nNSW Interim Native Vegetation Extent\n(2008-v2)NSW SLATS LANDSAT Woody Change: Derived\nVectorDatabase 1988 – 2010Plant Community Type ClassificationLand UseSoil LandscapesLandscapes and SoilsSoil data online\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Land Cover theme is an essential and authoritative\nsource of information that\ncan provide insight into\nthe behaviour of land cover\nto a wide variety of conditions,\nboth natural and situational.\n\n \n\nThis provides\nnatural resource\nmanagers with the capacity to identify\nemerging patterns of land cover\nchange and provides a broad spatial and historical context within which to interpret that\nland cover change.\n\n This can\nbe combined with other information\nto assess if any pro-\nactive intervention is required\nto alter change happening to\nthe land cover.\n\n \n\nInformation about Land Cover dynamics is essential to\nunderstanding and addressing\na range of national challenges including:\n\nmapping and monitoring land use, natural\nresources, biodiversity, water usage, drought, pollution, minerals, water\nquality, wetlands, groundwater dependent ecosystems, land clearing,\nfloodplains, crop acreage and growth, remnant vegetation, land degradation,\nirrigation, dry land salinity, and vegetation condition management of forests, rivers, fisheries,\ncatchments and agriculture national and state inventories of forests,\ngreenhouse gases, endangered species, land cover, topography, and carbon sinks emergency management of floods, bushfires and\nlandslides.\n\nThe NSW Department of Planning and Environment – Environment and Heritage Group is the source of truth for this data theme. The Environment and Heritage Group manages the state-wide vegetation, soils and land use datasets needed to support the Land Cover definitions. The current status of the land cover related datasets are as listed. Datasets\nincluded in the Land Cover Theme:\n\nNSW Native Vegetation Extent\nFor access to data please use below URLhttps://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/topics/animals-and-plants/biodiversity/nsw-bionet/about-bionet-vegetation-classification/bionet-vegetation-maps/vegetation-extent-and-condition-products#nativeWoody Extent and Foliage For access to data please use below URLhttps://datasets.seed.nsw.gov.au/dataset/landsat-woody-extent-and-foliage-projective-cover-fpc-ver-2-1-25m-20087355dPlant Community Type ClassificationFor access to data please use below URLhttps://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/topics/animals-and-plants/biodiversity/nsw-bionet/nsw-plant-community-type-classificationLand\nUse For access to data please use below URLhttps://datasets.seed.nsw.gov.au/dataset/nsw-landuse-2017-v1p2-f0edSoil\nLandscapes Landscapes and Soils Soil data\nonlineFor access to data please use below URLhttps://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/topics/land-and-soil/information/espadealternatively, eSpade can be access through the link belowhttp://espade.environment.nsw.gov.au/NSW Soil and Land Information System (SALIS)For access to data please use the URL http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/Salis5app/Main/Account/LoginThe Electronic Digital Infield Regolith Tool (eDIRT)For access to data please use the URL