Title

Land suitability data generated by the Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment

Description and Purpose

These 126 land suitability raster datasets (41 individual crops combined with their season and irrigation management systems) were produced for the Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment (NAWRA). These data provide improved land evaluation information to identify opportunities and promote detailed investigation for a range of sustainable development options.

Resolution/scale

90m pixel

Lineage

These land suitability raster data have been created from a range of inputs and processing steps. Following is an overview. For more information refer to the NAWRA published reports and in particular the report cited below. 1. Collated existing data (relating to: climate, topography, soils, natural resources, remotely sensed, of various formats: reports, spatial vector, spatial raster etc.). 2. Selection of additional soil and attribute site data by Latin hypercube statistical sampling method applied across the covariate space. 3. Fieldwork was carried out to collect additional soil and attribute data and understand geomorphology and landscapes. 4. Models were built from selected input data using predictive learning in a Random Forest approach implemented in the ranger R package. 5. Created key attributes raster data using digital soil mapping (DSM) 6. Land management options were chosen and suitability rules created for DSM attributes. 7. Suitability rules were run to produce limitation datasets using a modification on the FAO methods. 8. Final suitability data created for all land management options. 9. Companion reliability data was produced. 10. QA

Citation

Thomas M, Gregory L, Harms B, Hill JV, Morrison D, Philip S, Searle R, Smolinski H, Van Gool D, Watson I, Wilson PL and Wilson PR (2018) Land suitability of the Fitzroy, Darwin and Mitchell catchments. A technical report from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia.

Updates

None planned

Data release date

1 August 2018

Considerations

It is important to emphasise that this is a regional-scale assessment: further data collection and detailed soil physical, chemical and nutrient analyses would be required to plan development at a scheme, enterprise or property scale. Several bio-physical and socio-economic limitations that may have a bearing on land suitability were not explicitly considered as part of the land suitability framework (see sections 1.1 and 2.1.2 of the cited report). For example these land suitability raster datasets do not include consideration of the licensing of water, flood risk, contiguous land, risk of irrigation induced secondary salinity (relevant to the Fitzroy and Mitchell catchments only), or land tenure and other legislative controls. Some of these limitations are examined elsewhere in the Assessment e.g. flooding was investigated using flood modelling (Karim et al., 2018) and remote sensing (Sims et al., 2016) and the risk of irrigation induced secondary salinity was assessed as part of the groundwater investigations (Taylor et al., 2018a, 2018b).

Data quality

A quantitative assessment of the reliability of the suitability data was produced. Reliability data, accompanying each of the products, show the areas of each catchment where there is greater or lesser confidence in the accuracy of the output.

License and availability

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC-BY). Data can be downloaded from https://data.csiro.au

References

Karim F, Pena-Arancibia J, Ticehurst C, Marvanek S, Gallant J, Hughes J, Dutta D, Vaze J, Petheram C, Seo L and Kitson S (2018) Floodplain inundation mapping and modelling for the Fitzroy, Darwin and Mitchell catchments. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia.

Sims N, Anstee J, Barron O, Botha E, Lehmann E, Li L, McVicar T, Paget M, Ticehurst C, Van Niel T and Warren G (2016) Earth observation remote sensing. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia.

Taylor AR, Harrington GA, Clohessy S, Dawes WR, Crosbie RS, Doble RC, Wohling DL, Batlle-Aguilar J, Davies PJ, Thomas M and Suckow A (2018a) Hydrogeological assessment of the Grant Group and Poole Sandstone - Fitzroy catchment, Western Australia. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia.

Taylor AR, Doble RC, Crosbie RS, Barry KE, Harrington GA, Davies PJ and Thomas M (2018b) Hydrogeological assessment of the Bulimba Formation - Mitchell catchment, Queensland. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia.

Title

Soil attribute data generated by the Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment

Description and Purpose

18 soil attribute raster datasets were produced by digital soil mapping (DSM) techniques for the Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment (NAWRA). These 18 attributes provide data on the inherent properties of soil and underpin the land suitability framework.

Resolution/scale

90m pixel

Lineage

These soil attribute raster data have been created from a range of inputs and processing steps. Following is an overview. For more information refer to the NAWRA published reports and in particular the report cited below. 1. Collated existing data (relating to: climate, topography, soils, natural resources, remotely sensed, of various formats: reports, spatial vector, spatial raster etc.). 2. Selection of additional soil and attribute site data by Latin hypercube statistical sampling method applied across the covariate space. 3. Fieldwork was carried out to collect additional soil and attribute data and understand geomorphology and landscapes. 4. Models were built from selected input data using predictive learning in a Random Forest approach implemented in the ranger R package. 5. Created key attributes raster data using DSM techniques. 6. Companion reliability data was produced. 7. QA.

Citation

Thomas M, Brough, D, Bui E, Harms B, Holmes K, Hill JV, Morrison D, Philip S, Searle R, Smolinski H, Tuomi S, Van Gool D, Watson I, Wilson PL and Wilson PR (2018) Digital soil mapping of the Fitzroy, Darwin and Mitchell catchments. A technical report from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia.

Updates

None planned

Data release date

1 August 2018

Considerations

It is important to emphasise that this is a regional-scale assessment: further data collection and detailed soil physical, chemical and nutrient analyses would be required to plan development at a scheme, enterprise or property scale.

Data quality

Quality assessment of this DSM attribute data was conducted by three methods. 1. Statistical (quantitative) method of the model and input data. 2. Statistical (quantitative) assessment of the spatial attribute output data presented as a raster of the attributes 'reliability'. For categorical values the method for estimating reliability of the prediction is the Confusion Index and for continuous attributes the method for estimating reliability is the Coefficient of Variation. These data are shown and supplied. 3. Collecting independent external validation site data combined with on-ground expert (qualitative) examination of outputs during validation field trips.

License and availability

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC-BY). Data can be downloaded from https://data.csiro.au

Title

Ringtank suitability data generated by the Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment

Description and Purpose

The ringtank suitability raster data presents the results of a desktop broad-scale suitability assessment of farm-scale ringtanks for the Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment (NAWRA). This dataset provides improved information to identify opportunities and help focus detailed investigation for a range of sustainable development options.

Resolution/scale

90m pixel

Lineage

The ringtank raster data have been created from a range of inputs and processing steps. Following is an overview. For more information refer to the NAWRA published reports and in particular the report cited below. 1. Collated existing data. 2. Selection of additional soil and attribute site data. 3. Fieldwork was carried out to collect additional soil and attribute data and understand landscapes. 4. Models were built from selected input data using predictive learning in a Random Forest approach implemented in the ranger R package. 5. Created key attributes raster data using digital soil mapping (DSM) techniques. 6. Suitability rules were created for ringtanks. 7. Suitability rules were run to produce limitation datasets. 8. Final suitability data created. 9. QA

Citation

Petheram C, Rogers L, Read A, Gallant J, Moon A, Yang A, Gonzalez D, Seo L, Marvanek S, Hughes J, Ponce Reyes R, Wilson P, Wang B, Ticehurst C and Barber M (2017) Assessment of surface water storage options in the Fitzroy, Darwin and Mitchell catchments. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia.

Updates

None planned

Data release date

1 August 2018

Considerations

Farm-scale ringtanks require consideration at a scale finer than is possible to assess in this regional-scale resource assessment. Hence the results presented here are only indicative of where suitable locations may occur. Importantly these raster datasets do not explicitly consider the availability of water or proximity to a watercourse, and are only based on data in the top 1.5 m of the soil profile.

The design and construction of large farm-scale ringtanks should be undertaken by suitability qualified professionals.

Data quality

A qualitative assessment of the reliability of the ringtank data was carried out using expert knowledge.

License and availability

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC-BY). Data can be downloaded from https://data.csiro.au

Title

Flood inundation data modelled from imagery generated by the Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment

Description and Purpose

Flood inundation data were derived from MODIS satellite imagery and show the extent of the maximum percentage of water that occurred within each MODIS pixel between 2000 and 2015. Pixels containing a high percentage value show that extensive inundation has occurred at least once between 2000 and 2015, while those showing a low percentage indicates some surface water was detected within that pixel between 2000 and 2015. Flooding can be catastrophic to agricultural production in terms of loss of stock, fodder, topsoil and damage to crops and infrastructure. Flooding is also critical to wetland ecosystems.

Resolution/scale

500m pixel

Lineage

MODIS surface reflectance, composited into an 8-day image product, was used to calculate percentage of water within each 500m x 500m pixel using the Open Water Likelihood (OWL) algorithm. The maximum percentage of water from 2000 to 2015 was extracted for each pixel location. It is likely that some pixels will be incorrectly mapped as water due to confusion with certain terrain features and residual cloud shadow, as well as areas with high soil water content. Hence, to reduce noise only pixels modelled as containing at least 10% water (as derived from the MODIS OWL) are reported in the final dataset. A topography mask was applied to remove pixels incorrectly mapped as water on steep slopes.

Citation

Sims N, Anstee J, Barron O, Botha E, Lehmann E, Li L, McVicar T, Paget M, Ticehurst C, Van Niel T and Warren G (2016) Earth observation remote sensing. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia.

Updates

None planned

Data release date

1 August 2018

Considerations

A limitation of MODIS maps of surface water is that they are not of sufficient detail to map narrow water features of less than 1 pixel in width (~500 m). This problem is exaggerated where river channels are narrow and covered by vegetation along the banks, or floating vegetation, which obscures the water from the sensor. This was particularly prevalent in the Darwin catchments. When interpreting the MODIS water maps care must be taken due to artefacts in the imagery and confusion with dark soils and dark rocks as well as residual cloud and topographic shadow.

Data quality

A qualitative assessment of the reliability of the flood inundation data was carried out using expert knowledge.

License and availability

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC-BY). Data can be downloaded from https://data.csiro.au

Title

Waterhole persistence data generated by the Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment

Description and Purpose

Waterhole persistence data show the percentage of years where surface water was identified along stream channels during the driest period of the dry seasons (e.g. October to December depending upon the season) from 1988 to 2015 and was derived from Landsat imagery. Waterholes are important refuge habitats. Where they are sufficiently large and persistently inundated over time, waterholes may also provide a small quantity of low cost water for consumptive uses. Extraction of water from permanent waterholes may impact on existing users and local ecological systems.

Resolution/scale

30m pixel

Lineage

Waterholes were mapped at the end of each dry season (based on available cloud-free Landsat scenes) using a Normalised Difference Water Index derived from Landsat imagery. An inchannel mask containing a 500m buffer from the watercourse was divided into 200m segments along each watercourse. The percentage of dry seasons containing at least 1 pixel (30m x 30m) of water within each 200m segment was calculated. (This was to allow for the fact that a waterhole can vary in shape and location through time). In some cases gaps can occur along the 200m stream segments due to sharp bends in the stream channel.

Citation

Sims N, Anstee J, Barron O, Botha E, Lehmann E, Li L, McVicar T, Paget M, Ticehurst C, Van Niel T and Warren G (2016) Earth observation remote sensing. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia.

Updates

None planned

Data release date

1 August 2018

Considerations

Some assessments indicate that Landsat may not reliably detect inundation features smaller than 1 ha. The likelihood of detection is also reduced where dense vegetation covers the inundated area. This appears to be a particular issue in the Darwin catchments, and less so in the Fitzroy and Mitchell catchments. The 16-day repeat coverage, and inability to see through cloud cover also results in considerable lags between the hydrologically determined end of dry season and the nearest date of imagery and considerable changes in the size of waterholes may occur during the 16-day period.

Data quality

Twenty waterholes were visually identified in Google Earth for each catchment and digitised for direct comparison with the near-coincident Landsat NDWIXu and WOfS maps. The assessment of agreement was calculated using the Kappa statistic, see section 5.3 of the cited report.

License and availability

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC-BY). Data can be downloaded from https://data.csiro.au

Title

Aquifer data generated by the Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment

Description and Purpose

The aquifer datasets are a combination of vector data or raster data representing two different forms of the spatial extent of hydrogeological units hosting aquifers. The vector data alone represent the spatial extent of the outcropping and sub cropping areas of a hydrogeological unit at the land surface. The combined vector data and raster data represent the spatial extent of the hydrogeological unit both at the land surface as well as in the subsurface. These data indicate the hydrogeological units that host the most promising regional-scale aquifers for future groundwater resource development. These aquifers were identified using a range of data sources and were produced by the Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment (NAWRA). These data provide an up-to-date evaluation of the opportunities for groundwater resource development from aquifers that are: (i) present in the subsurface across large areas of the catchments, (ii) contain mostly low salinity (<800 mg/L) water, (iii) can yield water at a sufficient rate to support irrigation development (>10 L/second), and (iv) can be intersected by drilling and constructing bores at economical depths (<300 m below ground level). These hydrogeological attributes are all important considerations in any groundwater development. The aquifers have been identified for potential use in irrigated agriculture, aquaculture, mining and energy operations.

Resolution/scale

Various depending on the source data ranging. Refer to publications cited below.

Lineage

Aquifers were mapped by collating and reviewing all existing geological vector data, as well as point lithological and stratigraphic data available from existing 'Creative Commons' datasets. In addition, new point stratigraphic data were incorporated which were collected from targeted drilling investigations as part of NAWRA. For more information refer to the NAWRA published reports, in particular the reports cited below. The following is a brief overview of the methods. The spatial extent of outcropping and sub cropping areas of hydrogeological units were mapped using existing geological vector data. The spatial extent of hydrogeological units both at the land surface and in the subsurface was mapped by combining vector data with point lithological and stratigraphic data and interpolating between data points using ArcGIS to create a raster.

Citation

The aquifer data are published in individual groundwater technical reports for the Fitzroy, Darwin and Mitchell catchments:

Taylor AR, Harrington GA, Clohessy S, Dawes WR, Crosbie RS, Doble RC, Wohling DL, Batlle-Aguilar J, Davies PJ, Thomas M and Suckow A (2018) Hydrogeological assessment of the Grant Group and Poole Sandstone - Fitzroy catchment, Western Australia. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia.

Taylor AR, Doble RC, Crosbie RS, Barry KE, Harrington GA, Davies PJ and Thomas M (2018) Hydrogeological assessment of the Bulimba Formation - Mitchell catchment, Queensland. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia.

Turnadge C, Crosbie RS, Tickell SJ, Zaar U, Smith SD, Dawes WR, Harrington GA, Taylor AR (2018) Hydrogeological characterisation of the Mary-Wildman rivers area, Northern Territory. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia.

Updates

None planned

Data release date

1 August 2018

Considerations

This is a regional-scale assessment and is based on the current level of existing data. Some datasets were derived by interpolating between data points including areas that may be data sparse and therefore provide less confidence. Further data collection and detailed analysis need to be undertaken to plan groundwater resource development at a scheme, enterprise or property scale.

Data quality

The data quality varies across the catchments relating to source and scale. Information on data quality can be found in the relevant reports cited above.

License and availability

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC-BY). Data can be downloaded from https://data.csiro.au

Title

Depth to top of aquifer data generated by the Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment

Description and Purpose

The depth to top of aquifer datasets represent the interpolated spatial variation in the depth to the top of hydrogeological units hosting aquifers identified from a range of data sources as the most promising regional-scale aquifers for future groundwater resource development and was produced by the Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment (NAWRA). These datasets capture the current understanding of the spatial variation in depth to the top of aquifers. The depth information is an important consideration for understanding the potential costs at a particular location associated with drilling and constructing bores for extracting groundwater. These aquifers were identified as having (i) suitable quality water, (ii) sufficient bore yields and (iii) can be intersected at economical depths by drilling, for potential use in irrigated agriculture, aquaculture, mining and energy operations.

Resolution/scale

Various depending on the source data. Refer to publications cited below.

Lineage

The depth to top of aquifer was mapped by collating and reviewing all existing geological vector data, as well as point lithological and stratigraphic data available from existing 'Creative Commons' datasets. In addition, new point stratigraphic data were incorporated which were collected from targeted drilling investigations as part of NAWRA. For more information refer to the NAWRA published reports, in particular the reports cited below. The following is a brief overview of the methods. The spatial extent of the depth to the top of hydrogeological units in the subsurface was mapped by combining vector data with point lithological and stratigraphic data and interpolating between data points using ArcGIS to create a raster.

Citation

The depth to top of aquifer datasets are published in individual groundwater technical reports for the Fitzroy, Darwin and Mitchell catchments:

Taylor AR, Harrington GA, Clohessy S, Dawes WR, Crosbie RS, Doble RC, Wohling DL, Batlle-Aguilar J, Davies PJ, Thomas M and Suckow A (2018) Hydrogeological assessment of the Grant Group and Poole Sandstone - Fitzroy catchment, Western Australia. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia.

Taylor AR, Doble RC, Crosbie RS, Barry KE, Harrington GA, Davies PJ and Thomas M (2018) Hydrogeological assessment of the Bulimba Formation - Mitchell catchment, Queensland. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia.

Turnadge C, Crosbie RS, Tickell SJ, Zaar U, Smith SD, Dawes WR, Davies PJ, Harrington GA and Taylor AR (2018) Hydrogeological characterisation of the Mary-Wildman rivers area, Northern Territory. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia.

Updates

None planned

Data release date

1 August 2018

Considerations

This is a regional-scale assessment and is based on the current level of existing data. Some datasets were derived by interpolation between data points including areas that may be data sparse and therefore provide less confidence. Further data collection and detailed analysis need to be undertaken to plan groundwater resource development at a scheme, enterprise or property scale.

Data quality

The data quality varies across the catchments relating to source and scale. Information on data quality can be found in the relevant reports cited above.

License and availability

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC-BY). Data can be downloaded from https://data.csiro.au

Title

Depth to groundwater data generated by the Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment

Description and Purpose

The depth to groundwater datasets represent the interpolated spatial variation in the depth to groundwater based on observed hydraulic head (or piezometric head) in existing groundwater bores. The datasets provide an indication of the current hydraulic head in the aquifers, which indicates if groundwater would either flow naturally to the surface or the depth which groundwater would need to be pumped if the aquifer was drilled and groundwater bores were installed at a particular location. These datasets capture the current understanding of dry-season groundwater levels in aquifers identified from a range of data sources as the most promising regional-scale aquifers for future groundwater resource development and were produced by the Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment (NAWRA). These aquifers were identified as having (i) suitable quality water, (ii) sufficient bore yields and (iii) can be intersected at economical depths by drilling for potential use in irrigated agriculture, aquaculture, mining and energy operations.

Resolution/scale

Various depending on the source data. Refer to publications cited below.

Lineage

The depth to groundwater data were derived using a combination of existing historical hydraulic head observations from 'Creative Commons' datasets, as well as new hydraulic head observations collected as part of targeted field investigations in NAWRA. The depth to groundwater was generated by interpolating between data points using ArcGIS to create a raster, and mapped to the spatial extent of target aquifers. For more information refer to the NAWRA published reports and in particular the report cited below.

Citation

The depth to groundwater data are published in individual groundwater technical reports for the Fitzroy, Darwin and Mitchell catchments:

Taylor AR, Harrington GA, Clohessy S, Dawes WR, Crosbie RS, Doble RC, Wohling DL, Batlle-Aguilar J, Davies PJ, Thomas M and Suckow A (2018) Hydrogeological assessment of the Grant Group and Poole Sandstone - Fitzroy catchment, Western Australia. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia.

Taylor AR, Doble RC, Crosbie RS, Barry KE, Harrington GA, Davies PJ and Thomas M (2018) Hydrogeological assessment of the Bulimba Formation - Mitchell catchment, Queensland. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia.

Turnadge C, Crosbie RS, Tickell SJ, Zaar U, Smith SD, Dawes WR, Davies PJ, Harrington GA and Taylor AR (2018) Hydrogeological characterisation of the Mary-Wildman rivers area, Northern Territory. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia.

Updates

None planned

Data release date

1 August 2018

Considerations

This is a regional-scale assessment and is based on the current level of existing data. Some datasets were derived by interpolation between data points including areas that may be data sparse and therefore provide less confidence. Further data collection and detailed analysis need to be undertaken to plan groundwater resource development at a scheme, enterprise or property scale.

Data quality

The data quality varies across the catchments relating to source and scale. Information on data quality can be found in the relevant reports cited above.

License and availability

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC-BY). Data can be downloaded from https://data.csiro.au

Title

Atlas of Living Australia data

Description and Purpose

The Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) is a collaborative, national project that aggregates biodiversity data from multiple sources. The ALA pulls together two basic types of information about Australia's living things: species and environments and is hosted by CSIRO. These data are a resource for science, industry and decision makers in environmental monitoring, conservation planning, biodiversity conservation, sustainable ecosystem development, natural resource management and environmental impact assessments. It was one of the datasets used to identify ecological assets in the Assessment. Other (non-ALA) ecological datasets used in the Assessment are described in the NAWRA ecological asset description report, Pollino et al. (2018).

Resolution/scale

Various.

Lineage

ALA is a node of the Global Biodiversity Infrastructure Facility (GBIF), and is supported by the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS). It is hosted by CSIRO. All aspects of data management adhere to international and national protocols and guidelines, including data from citizen science.

Citation

Atlas of Living Australia website at http://www.ala.org.au. Accessed 1 July 2017.

Updates

None planned

Data release date

1 August 2018

Considerations

It should be noted that the ALA data are based on recorded observations and the absence of an observation of a species at a location does not necessarily mean that species is absent.

When using these data various considerations need to be understood relating to the source, scale and application of the data as per information supplied with data downloads and extracts.

Data quality

The quality of data varies across the ALA relating to source and scale as per reliability information supplied with data downloads and extracts.

License and availability

The Atlas of Living Australia website http://www.ala.org.au. provides data access and licensing information.

Reference

Pollino CA, Barber E, Buckworth R, Cadiegues M, Deng A, Ebner B, Kenyon R, Liedloff A, Merrin LE, Moeseneder C, Morgan D, Nielsen DL, O'Sullivan J, Ponce Reyes R, Robson BJ, Stratford DS, Stewart-Koster B, and Turschwell M (2018) Synthesis of knowledge to support the assessment of impacts of water resource development to ecological assets in northern Australia: asset descriptions. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia.

Title

Concrete gravity dam instream data generated by the Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment

Description and Purpose

This dataset contains the more promising sites for major instream dams (wall height > 15m) in each of the study areas taking into consideration topography, hydrology and climate. For display purposes the sites are ranked in terms of approximate cost of construction per storage volume (ML). These data do not take into consideration the geological suitability. Data are displayed according to the minimum cost/ML yield at the optimal height (i.e. the height at which the minimum cost/ML yield occurs).

Resolution/scale

The modelling analysis was underpinned by DEM-H (30m resolution). Summary data are provided for the better ~5000 locations.

Lineage

These data were generated using the DamSite model and are reported in the NAWRA surface water storage report (Petheram et al., 2017). The broad modelling steps were: 1. Calculate catchment, dam and reservoir dimensions for every grid cell in the study area with a catchment area greater than 20 km2. 2. For each full supply level at each location the flood rise for events of annual exceedance probability (AEP) of 1 in 10,000 and 1 in 50,000 years were calculated. 3. The cost of constructing the dam wall was calculated by determining the quantity of material required to construct the dam wall (designed for an event of AEP 1 in 10,000) and saddle dams, (designed for an event of AEP 1 in 50,000) as required, using a unit cost approach, assuming a roller compacted concrete dam. 4. The quantity of water that could be released from the dam under controlled conditions (i.e. the yield) in 85% of years was calculated by aggregating gridded runoff from the AWRA-L model upstream of each location and assessed for each full supply level using a behaviour analysis approach under the historical climate (i.e. 1890 to 2015).

Citation

Petheram C, Rogers L, Read A, Gallant J, Moon A, Yang A, Gonzalez D, Seo L, Marvanek S, Hughes J, Ponce Reyes R, Wilson P, Wang B, Ticehurst C and Barber M (2017) Assessment of surface water storage options in the Fitzroy, Darwin and Mitchell catchments. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia.

Updates

None planned

Data release date

1 August 2018

Considerations

Cost
Approximate storage costs were developed using a unit cost approach assuming a roller compacted concrete dam and earth embankment saddle dams (see Petheram et al., 2017). These estimates are thought likely to be within -25% to +75% of the actual cost. Should site geotechnical investigations reveal unknown unfavourable geological conditions, costs could be substantially higher. For this analysis DEM-H (Gallant et al., 2011) was used to delineate catchment areas, dam cross-section profiles and calculate reservoir dimensions. The ability of DEM-H to capture the detailed topographic structure around a potential dam site is rather more limited than its ability to characterise the catchment area and storage volume. Consequently this may potentially impact on the modelled cost of the dam and saddle dams as dam cross-section profiles were calculated using DEM-H. In some instances DEM-H may be erroneous due to riparian vegetation that was not completely removed or the presence of water at the time of data acquisition by the Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (data were acquired over 10 days in February 2000). DEM-H is also unable to resolve the fine-scale topographic variations around narrow channels or where the topography is particularly steep (see Petheram et al., 2013 for more information on limitations of using DEM-H for dam and reservoir analysis). Experience with the SRTM-derived digital elevation model (DEM) is that errors in reservoir volume for major dams are small compared to the actual storage volume.

Yield
Reservoir yield estimates are limited by the quality of the gridded AWRA-L dataset used to calculate streamflow upstream of each location. The quality of estimates at each location will vary depending upon the quality and representativeness of the available streamflow gauging station data (see Hughes et al., 2017).

Datum
It should be noted that there is a vertical datum difference between Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission derived products such as DEM-H, which are based on the EGM96 geoid, and the Australian height datum (AHD). The difference is poorly defined due to the lack of a well-defined AHD surface across the Australian continent, but is generally less than 1 m. The implications of this are that elevation datasets using different datum may result in different reservoir volume and dam cost calculations for the same full supply level.

Data quality

Dam cost data generated by the DamSite model were compared to manual estimates of dam cost at six locations prepared by a professional highly experienced in dam design and construction. Reservoir yield data generated by the DamSite model were compared to estimates of reservoir yield data using a behaviour analysis model and output from a river system model (Hughes et al., 2017).

License and availability

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC-BY). Data can be downloaded from https://data.csiro.au

References

Gallant JC, Dowling TI, Read AM, Wilson N, Tickle P, Inskeep C (2011) 1 second SRTM Derived Digital Elevation Models User Guide. Geoscience Australia www.ga.gov.au/topographic-mapping/digital-elevation-data.html

Hughes J, Yang A, Wang B, Marvanek S, Carlin L, Seo L, Petheram C and Vaze J (2017) Calibration of river system and landscape models for the Fitzroy, Darwin and Mitchell catchments. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia.

Petheram C, Rogers L, Eades G, Marvanek S, Gallant J, Read A, Sherman B, Yang A, Waltham N, McIntyre-Tamwoy S, Burrows D, Kim S, Podger S, Tomkins K, Poulton P, Holz L, Bird M, Atkinson F, Gallant S, Kehoe M (2013) Assessment of surface water storage options in the Flinders and Gilbert catchments. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Flinders and Gilbert Agricultural Resource Assessment, part of the North Queensland Irrigated Agriculture Strategy. CSIRO Water for a Healthy Country and Sustainable Agriculture flagships, Australia.

Petheram C, Rogers L, Read A, Gallant J, Moon A, Yang A, Gonzalez D, Seo L, Marvanek S, Hughes J, Ponce Reyes R, Wilson P, Wang B, Ticehurst C and Barber M (2017) Assessment of surface water storage options in the Fitzroy, Darwin and Mitchell catchments. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia.

Title

Rainfall data

Description and Purpose

The rainfall raster data presents modelling of mean annual, wet season (November to April) and dry season (May to October) rainfall, averaged over the 125-year historical period between 1 September 1890 and 31 August 2015. Data were sourced from the Scientific Information for Land Owners database (SILO) (Jeffery et al. 2001). Weather is the key source of uncertainty affecting crop yield. It influences the rate and vigour of crop growth, while catastrophic weather events can result in extensive crop losses. Of all the climate parameters affecting hydrology and agriculture in water-limited environments, rainfall is usually the most important. Rainfall is the main determinant of runoff and recharge and is a fundamental requirement for plant growth.

Resolution/scale

5km pixel

Lineage

The rainfall raster data was created from a consistent set of historical climate data sourced from SILO daily gridded climate data. SILO provides surfaces of daily climate data interpolated and in-filled from point measurements from by the observation network developed and maintained by the Bureau of Meteorology.

Citation

Charles S, Petheram C, Berthet A, Browning G, Hodgson G, Wheeler M, Yang A, Gallant S, Vaze J, Wang B, Marshall A, Hendon H, Kuleshov Y, Dowdy A, Reid P, Read A, Feikema P, Hapuarachchi P, Smith T, Gregory P and Shi L (2016) Climate data and their characterisation for hydrological and agricultural scenario modelling across the Fitzroy, Darwin and Mitchell catchments. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia and can be accessed here:

Updates

None planned

Data release date

1 August 2018

Considerations

It is important to note that the gridded climate data are a modelled dataset (i.e. they are derived from observed data but do not contain the original observed data). Equivalent sized catchments in south-eastern Australia have about ten times more climate stations than those of northern Australia's Fitzroy, Darwin and Mitchell catchments (see companion technical report on climate, Charles et al. 2016).

Data quality

Original input observations have been quality checked by the Bureau of Meteorology and the interpolation routines used have been subjected to additional error checking. Data accuracy is expected to be lowest in areas where the observation density is low relative to the climate gradients and where observations are only available for shorter time periods. See companion technical report on climate, Charles et al. (2016) for information on data available in the three study areas.

License and availability

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC-BY). Data can be downloaded from https://data.csiro.au

References

Charles S, Petheram C, Berthet A, Browning G, Hodgson G, Wheeler M, Yang A, Gallant S, Vaze J, Wang B, Marshall A, Hendon H, Kuleshov Y, Dowdy A, Reid P, Read A, Feikema P, Hapuarachchi P, Smith T, Gregory P and Shi L (2016) Climate data and their characterisation for hydrological and agricultural scenario modelling across the Fitzroy, Darwin and Mitchell catchments. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia and can be accessed here:

Jeffrey SJ, Carter JO, Moodie KB and Beswick AR (2001) Using spatial interpolation to construct a comprehensive archive of Australian climate data. Environmental Modelling and Software 16, 309-330.

Title

Potential evaporation data

Description and Purpose

The potential evaporation (PE) raster data presents modelling of mean annual, wet season (November to April) and dry season (May to October) PE, averaged over the historical period 1965 to 2015. Data were sourced from the Scientific Information for Land Owners database (SILO) (Jeffery et al. 2001). Potential evaporation (PE) is defined as the amount of evaporation that would occur if an unlimited source of water was available. It provides an upper limit to actual evaporation.

Resolution/scale

5km pixel

Lineage

The PE raster data was created from a consistent set of historical climate data (1965 to 2015) sourced from SILO daily gridded climate data using Morton's wet environment areal potential evaporation (Morton, 1983). PE data was calculated using the following SILO data: maximum and minimum air temperature; incoming solar radiation; atmospheric vapour pressure (converted to relative humidity using the SILO actual vapour pressure divided by the saturation vapour pressure at the daily air temperature extremes). This method is outlined in Li et al. (2009).

Citation

Charles S, Petheram C, Berthet A, Browning G, Hodgson G, Wheeler M, Yang A, Gallant S, Vaze J, Wang B, Marshall A, Hendon H, Kuleshov Y, Dowdy A, Reid P, Read A, Feikema P, Hapuarachchi P, Smith T, Gregory P and Shi L (2016) Climate data and their characterisation for hydrological and agricultural scenario modelling across the Fitzroy, Darwin and Mitchell catchments. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia and can be accessed here:

Updates

None planned

Data release date

1 August 2018

Considerations

It is important to note that the gridded climate data are a modelled dataset (i.e. they are derived from observed data but do not contain the original observed data). Equivalent sized catchments in south-eastern Australia have about ten times more climate stations than those of northern Australia's Fitzroy, Darwin and Mitchell catchments (see companion technical report on climate, Charles et al. 2016).

Data quality

Original input observations have been quality checked by the Bureau of Meteorology and the interpolation routines used have been subjected to additional error checking. Data accuracy is expected to be lowest in areas where the observation density is low relative to the climate gradients and where observations are only available for shorter time periods. See companion technical report on climate, Charles et al. (2016) for information on data available in the three study areas.

License and availability

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC-BY). Data can be downloaded from https://data.csiro.au

References

Charles S, Petheram C, Berthet A, Browning G, Hodgson G, Wheeler M, Yang A, Gallant S, Vaze J, Wang B, Marshall A, Hendon H, Kuleshov Y, Dowdy A, Reid P, Read A, Feikema P, Hapuarachchi P, Smith T, Gregory P and Shi L (2016) Climate data and their characterisation for hydrological and agricultural scenario modelling across the Fitzroy, Darwin and Mitchell catchments. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia and can be accessed here:

Jeffrey SJ, Carter JO, Moodie KB and Beswick AR (2001) Using spatial interpolation to construct a comprehensive archive of Australian climate data. Environmental Modelling and Software 16, 309-330.

Li L, Donohue R, McVicar T, Van Niel T, Teng J, Potter N, Smith I, Kirono D, Bathols J, Cai W, Marvanek S, Gallant S, Chiew F and Frost A (2009) Climate data and their characterisation for hydrological scenario modelling across northern Australia. A report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Sustainable Yields Project. CSIRO Water for a Healthy Country Flagship, Australia.

Title

Large farm-scale gully dam data generated by the Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment

Description and Purpose

This dataset contains the more promising sites for large farm-scale (embankment) gully dams (between 5 and 20 m in height). Sites with catchment areas larger than 30 km2 were deemed to be too large for embankment gully dams and were not analysed. Two options are available for display. 1. Those data where topography, hydrology and climate were taken into consideration, and 2. Those data where topography, hydrology and soil suitability were taken into consideration. The second option is a subset of the first option, where potential farm-scale gully dams underlain by soils considered unsuitable for constructing earth embankment dams are not displayed. For display purposes the sites are ranked in terms of approximate cost of construction per storage volume (ML). These data do not take into consideration the geological suitability. Data are displayed according to the minimum cost/ML yield at the optimal height (i.e. the height at which the minimum cost/ML yield occurs).

Resolution/scale

The modelling analysis was underpinned by DEM-H (30m resolution). Summary data are provided for the better ~5000 locations.

Lineage

These data were generated using the DamSite model and are reported in the NAWRA surface water storage report (Petheram et al., 2017). The broad modelling steps were: 1. Calculate catchment, dam and reservoir dimensions at every location in the study area with a catchment area greater than 2 km2. 2. The cost of constructing the dam wall was calculated by determining the quantity of material required to construct the wall and saddle dams at each full supply level (with an allowance for freeboard depending upon the size of the reservoir) and assuming that half of the reservoir area had to be cleared. An allowance was made to the cost for design and investigation, permits and approvals, spillway, riprap protection, fish passage and contractor accommodation. 3. The quantity of water that could be released from the dam under controlled conditions (i.e. the yield) in 85% of years at each full supply level was calculated as being the smaller of the 85% annual exceedance yield of AWRA-L gridded runoff minus evaporation or the storage volume minus evaporation.

Citation

Petheram C, Rogers L, Read A, Gallant J, Moon A, Yang A, Gonzalez D, Seo L, Marvanek S, Hughes J, Ponce Reyes R, Wilson P, Wang B, Ticehurst C and Barber M (2017) Assessment of surface water storage options in the Fitzroy, Darwin and Mitchell catchments. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia.

Updates

None planned

Data release date

1 August 2018

Considerations

Cost
For this analysis DEM-H (Gallant et al., 2011) was used to delineate catchment areas, dam cross-section profiles and calculate reservoir dimensions. The ability of DEM-H to capture the detailed topographic structure around a potential dam site is rather more limited than its ability to characterise the catchment area and storage volume. Consequently this may potentially impact on the modelled cost of the dam and saddle dams as dam cross-section profiles were calculated using DEM-H. In some instances DEM-H may be erroneous due to riparian vegetation that was not completely removed or the presence of water at the time of data acquisition by the Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (data were acquired over 10 days in February 2000). DEM-H is also unable to resolve the fine-scale topographic variations around narrow channels or where the topography is particularly steep (see Petheram et al., 2013 for more information on limitations of using DEM-H for dam and reservoir analysis). Experience with the SRTM-derived digital elevation model (DEM) is that errors in reservoir volume for major dams are small compared to the actual storage volume.

Yield
Reservoir yield estimates are limited by the quality of the gridded AWRA-L dataset used to calculate streamflow upstream of each location. Generally the AWRA-L runoff data are more representative of catchments considerably larger than 30km2 so yield estimates should be considered indicative only. The quality of estimates will vary in space depending upon the quality and representativeness of the available streamflow gauging station data (see Hughes et al., 2017).

Datum
It should be noted that there is a vertical datum difference between Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission derived products such as DEM-H, which are based on the EGM96 geoid, and the Australian height datum (AHD). The difference is poorly defined due to the lack of a well-defined AHD surface across the Australian continent, but is generally less than 1 m. The implications of this are that elevation datasets using different datum may result in different reservoir volume and dam cost calculations for the same full supply level.

Data quality

The data have not been independently tested due to the absence of gully dams in the study areas.

License and availability

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC-BY). Data can be downloaded from https://data.csiro.au

References

Gallant JC, Dowling TI, Read AM, Wilson N, Tickle P, Inskeep C (2011) 1 second SRTM Derived Digital Elevation Models User Guide. Geoscience Australia www.ga.gov.au/topographic-mapping/digital-elevation-data.html

Petheram C, Rogers L, Eades G, Marvanek S, Gallant J, Read A, Sherman B, Yang A, Waltham N, McIntyre-Tamwoy S, Burrows D, Kim S, Podger S, Tomkins K, Poulton P, Holz L, Bird M, Atkinson F, Gallant S, Kehoe M (2013) Assessment of surface water storage options in the Flinders and Gilbert catchments. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Flinders and Gilbert Agricultural Resource Assessment, part of the North Queensland Irrigated Agriculture Strategy. CSIRO Water for a Healthy Country and Sustainable Agriculture flagships, Australia.

Petheram C, Rogers L, Read A, Gallant J, Moon A, Yang A, Gonzalez D, Seo L, Marvanek S, Hughes J, Ponce Reyes R, Wilson P, Wang B, Ticehurst C and Barber M (2017) Assessment of surface water storage options in the Fitzroy, Darwin and Mitchell catchments. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia.

Title

Indigenous cultural heritage sites data generated by the Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment

Description and Purpose

This dataset only shows the generalised location of Indigenous cultural heritage sites that were formally recorded in government-held databases at the time NAWRA was undertaken. These databases are continually updated and many Indigenous sites remain unrecorded, so the map demonstrates the presence of a layer, not the full detail or extent of Indigenous cultural heritage. Refer to the registered cultural heritage management agencies in each State or Territory for further guidance about formally recorded sites. A comprehensive cultural heritage assessment has yet to be conducted with Indigenous groups in the NAWRA catchments and Indigenous groups hold very substantial cultural heritage knowledge that remains unrecorded. Indigenous cultural heritage sites can include: archaeological sites (artefact scatters, hearths, stone tool knapping areas, scarred trees, etc.); traditional knowledge and story sites; historical sites; and places of contemporary importance for maintaining cultural life (hunting, fishing, bush medicine, Indigenous Knowledge sharing, etc.). Indigenous cultural heritage protection and its relationship to development is a crucial area of ongoing concern, current activity and future potential for Indigenous people. For more information about Indigenous cultural values, cultural heritage, and cultural uses in the NAWRA catchments, refer to the published NAWRA reports cited below.

Resolution/scale

5km pixel

Lineage

Existing publicly recorded, registered and/or listed data for the NAWRA catchments was supplied by the Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships (Queensland) the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority (Northern Territory), and the Department of Aboriginal Affairs (Western Australia) respectively. This data was collated and merged into a single layer. A 5 x 5km raster was created from the merged points layer using a count function to total the number of ICH points occurring within each grid cell.

Citation

Barber M and Woodward E (2018) Indigenous water values, rights, interests and development objectives in the Fitzroy catchment. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia.

Barber M (2018) Indigenous water values, rights, interests and development objectives in the Darwin catchments. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia.

Lyons I and Barber M (2018) Indigenous water values, rights, interests and development objectives in the Mitchell catchment. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia.

Updates

None planned

Data release date

1 August 2018

Considerations

It is important to emphasise that this is a regional-scale assessment: further data collection and detailed research would be required for planning.

Data quality

Original input observations were collected in previous research and cultural heritage recording processes and maintained in jurisdiction databases. This 5km modelled dataset presents the input data 'aggregated and delocalised' for the project purposes

License and availability

Refer to the registered cultural heritage management agencies in each State or Territory for current data and/or information about specific locations. NAWRA Explorer data is Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC-BY). Data can be downloaded from https://data.csiro.au

Title

Registered Indigenous Land Use Agreements (ILUA) - agreement boundaries and core attributes about agreements. Data source - National Native Title Tribunal

Description and Purpose

This dataset reflects the boundaries of those Indigenous Land Use Agreements (ILUA) that have entered the notification process or have been registered and placed on the Register of Indigenous Land Use Agreements (s199A, Native Title Act; Commonwealth). This is a national dataset. Spatial attribution includes National Native Title Tribunal number, Name, Agreement Type, Proponent, Area and Registration Date.

These ILUA are binding agreements between native title parties and others about the use of land and waters where native title is claimed or determined. For more information about Native Title in the NAWRA study, refer to the NAWRA published reports and in particular the reports referenced below.

Resolution/scale

National

Lineage

Created by the National Native Title Tribunal in 1998 and continuously updated and maintained.

Citation

Products using this data should acknowledge the National Native Title Tribunal as the data source.

Updates

None planned for this interface. Daily updates are available from http://www.nntt.gov.au/assistance/Geospatial/Pages/Spatial-aata.aspx

Data release date

30 August 2018

Considerations

This data is supplied by the National Native Title Tribunal (NNTT). For more information on the NNTT visit the NNTT website http://www.nntt.gov.au/aboutus/Pages/default.aspx. To download spatial data and the full metadata go to http://www.nntt.gov.au/assistance/Geospatial/Pages/Spatial-aata.aspx

Data quality

While the National Native Title Tribunal (NNTT) and the Native Title Registrar (Registrar) have exercised due care in ensuring the accuracy of the information provided, it is provided for general information only and on the understanding that neither the NNTT, the Registrar nor the Commonwealth of Australia is providing professional advice. Appropriate professional advice relevant to your circumstances should be sought rather than relying on the information provided. In addition, you must exercise your own judgment and carefully evaluate the information provided for accuracy, currency, completeness and relevance for the purpose for which it is to be used.

The information provided is often supplied by, or based on, data and information from external sources, therefore the NNTT and Registrar cannot guarantee that the information is accurate or up-to-date.

The NNTT and Registrar expressly disclaim any liability arising from the use of this information.

This information should not be relied upon in relation to any matters associated with cultural heritage.

License and availability

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC-BY). Data can be downloaded from https://data.csiro.au

References

Barber M and Woodward E (2018) Indigenous water values, rights, interests and development objectives in the Fitzroy catchment. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia.

Barber M (2018) Indigenous water values, rights, interests and development objectives in the Darwin catchments. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia.

Lyons I and Barber M (2018) Indigenous water values, rights, interests and development objectives in the Mitchell catchment. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia.

Title

National Native Title Register (Determinations) - boundaries and core attributes. Data source - National Native Title Tribunal

Description and Purpose

This dataset reflects the boundaries of claimant and nonclaimant native title applications that have been determined in part or in full, together with attribution about that determination. This dataset is stored nationally. The National Native Title Register (s192, Native Title Act, Commonwealth), is a register containing information about each determination of native title by the Federal or High Court or by a recognized State or Territory body. Determinations are categorized by both process and outcome. Process will be by consent, litigation or unopposed. Outcome will be that native title will have been found to exist in full or part, or been extinguished. Those determinations subject to appeal are also noted. For more information about Native Title in the NAWRA study, refer to the NAWRA published reports and in particular the reports referenced below.

Resolution/scale

National

Lineage

Created by the National Native Title Tribunal in 1998 and continuously updated and maintained.

Citation

Products using this data should acknowledge the National Native Title Tribunal as the data source.

Updates

None planned for this interface. Daily updates are available from http://www.nntt.gov.au/assistance/Geospatial/Pages/Spatial-aata.aspx

Data release date

30 August 2018

Considerations

This data is supplied by the National Native Title Tribunal (NNTT). For more information on the NNTT visit the NNTT website http://www.nntt.gov.au/aboutus/Pages/default.aspx. To download spatial data and the full metadata go to http://www.nntt.gov.au/assistance/Geospatial/Pages/Spatial-aata.aspx

Data quality

While the National Native Title Tribunal (NNTT) and the Native Title Registrar (Registrar) have exercised due care in ensuring the accuracy of the information provided, it is provided for general information only and on the understanding that neither the NNTT, the Registrar nor the Commonwealth of Australia is providing professional advice. Appropriate professional advice relevant to your circumstances should be sought rather than relying on the information provided. In addition, you must exercise your own judgment and carefully evaluate the information provided for accuracy, currency, completeness and relevance for the purpose for which it is to be used.

The information provided is often supplied by, or based on, data and information from external sources, therefore the NNTT and Registrar cannot guarantee that the information is accurate or up-to-date.

The NNTT and Registrar expressly disclaim any liability arising from the use of this information.

This information should not be relied upon in relation to any matters associated with cultural heritage.

License and availability

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC-BY). Data can be downloaded from https://data.csiro.au

References

Barber M and Woodward E (2018) Indigenous water values, rights, interests and development objectives in the Fitzroy catchment. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia.

Barber M (2018) Indigenous water values, rights, interests and development objectives in the Darwin catchments. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia.

Lyons I and Barber M (2018) Indigenous water values, rights, interests and development objectives in the Mitchell catchment. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia.

Title

Register of Native Title Claims - boundaries and core attributes about applications. Data source - National Native Title Tribunal

Description and Purpose

This dataset attempts to reflect the boundaries of claimant applications for Native Title as per the Register of Native Title Claims (s185, Native Title Act; Commonwealth). This is a national dataset. This dataset depicts the spatial record of registered claimant applications. Spatial attribution includes National Native Title Tribunal number, Federal Court number and application status. Applicants of registered applications have the Right To Negotiate (RTN) with respect to certain types of Future Acts over the area being claimed. Whilst applications that are determined are recorded on a separate register, all registered applications remain on the Register of Native Title Claims until otherwise finalised. For more information about Native Title in the NAWRA study, refer to the NAWRA published reports and in particular the reports referenced below.

Resolution/scale

National

Lineage

Created by the National Native Title Tribunal in 1994 and continuously updated and maintained.

Citation

Products using this data should acknowledge the National Native Title Tribunal as the data source.

Updates

None planned for this interface. Daily updates are available from http://www.nntt.gov.au/assistance/Geospatial/Pages/Spatial-aata.aspx

Data release date

30 August 2018

Considerations

This data is supplied by the National Native Title Tribunal (NNTT). For more information on the NNTT visit the NNTT website http://www.nntt.gov.au/aboutus/Pages/default.aspx. To download spatial data and the full metadata go to http://www.nntt.gov.au/assistance/Geospatial/Pages/Spatial-aata.aspx

Data quality

While the National Native Title Tribunal (NNTT) and the Native Title Registrar (Registrar) have exercised due care in ensuring the accuracy of the information provided, it is provided for general information only and on the understanding that neither the NNTT, the Registrar nor the Commonwealth of Australia is providing professional advice. Appropriate professional advice relevant to your circumstances should be sought rather than relying on the information provided. In addition, you must exercise your own judgment and carefully evaluate the information provided for accuracy, currency, completeness and relevance for the purpose for which it is to be used.

The information provided is often supplied by, or based on, data and information from external sources, therefore the NNTT and Registrar cannot guarantee that the information is accurate or up-to-date.

The NNTT and Registrar expressly disclaim any liability arising from the use of this information.

This information should not be relied upon in relation to any matters associated with cultural heritage.

License and availability

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC-BY). Data can be downloaded from https://data.csiro.au

References

Barber M and Woodward E (2018) Indigenous water values, rights, interests and development objectives in the Fitzroy catchment. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia.

Barber M (2018) Indigenous water values, rights, interests and development objectives in the Darwin catchments. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia.

Lyons I and Barber M (2018) Indigenous water values, rights, interests and development objectives in the Mitchell catchment. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia.

Title

Aboriginal land held under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act (Northern Territory) and Aboriginal land (NT enhanced freehold)

Description and Purpose

This dataset shows boundaries of land collectively owned by Aboriginal groups able to demonstrate traditional association with that land in order to satisfy the requirements of the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976. The landholding is under a form of collective freehold title unique to the Northern Territory. It is the dominant form of Indigenous customary land ownership in the NAWRA Darwin catchments, and is shown here to complement registered claims and agreements under the Native Title regime.

Resolution/scale

Northern Territory

Lineage

Based on data supplied by the Northern Land Council in 2017.

Citation

Products using this data should cite the Northern Land Council as the source.

Updates

None planned for this interface

Data release date

30 August 2018

Considerations

Refer to the Northern Land Council for further information.

Data quality

The Northern Land Council and CSIRO have exercised due care in ensuring the accuracy of the information provided, but it is provided for general information only and does not constitute professional advice. Northern Land Council and CSIRO expressly disclaim any liability arising from the use of this information. This information should not be relied upon in relation to any matters associated with cultural heritage.

License and availability

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC-BY). Refer to the Northern Land Council for further information.

References

Barber M (2018) Indigenous water values, rights, interests and development objectives in the Darwin catchments. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia.

Title

Remnant vegetation cover - 2015 - Queensland and Regional Ecosystem Description Database (REDD). Data source - Queensland Herbarium, Department of Environment and Science

Description and Purpose

Delineation of remnant/non-remnant vegetation, remnant regional ecosystems, biodiversity status, cleared areas and other features for Queensland. Regional ecosystems are vegetation communities in a bioregion that are consistently associated with a particular combination of geology, landform and soil (Sattler and Williams 1999). The mapping of 2015 remnant vegetation cover of Queensland provides information for regional groups, non-government organisations, government departments, local government and industry, for planning and management purposes.

Database - Regional ecosystem descriptions are maintained in the Regional Ecosystem Description Database (REDD) and accompanies the Queensland Herbarium regional ecosystem mapping.

These datasets were used to identify ecological assets for NAWRA. Other ecological datasets used are described in the NAWRA ecological asset description report, Pollino et al. (2018) referenced below.

Resolution/scale

1:100000

Lineage

2015 Landsat imagery supplied by SLATS, DES. Aerial photography from various years. Individual remnant vegetation cover layers are working datasets updated at 2 yearly intervals and are used to derive the remnant vegetation communities and regional ecosystem layers from the pre-clearing coverage. Refer to information contained in the Methodology for Vegetation Survey and Mapping of Queensland. Polygons were sampled depending on accessibility and time constraints. These data were produced at a scale of 1:100,000 therefore the precision of polygon boundaries, drawn at a larger scale (eg: 1:50,000), will be affected.

Database - The development and refinement of the regional ecosystem classification and mapping of Queensland is described in Queensland's Regional Ecosystems. Building and maintaining a biodiversity inventory, planning framework and information system for Queensland

Citation

Spatial data - State of Queensland (Department of Environment and Science) 2018. Updated data available at http://qldspatial.information.qld.gov.au/catalogue

Database - Queensland Herbarium (2018) Regional Ecosystem Description Database (REDD). Version 10.1 (March 2018) (DSITI: Brisbane)

Updates

None planned for this interface.

Regional ecosystems, their status and the database will continue to be revised and refined as more information becomes available. Users should check regularly for the latest versions and reference the information accordingly

Data release date

Spatial data 2015 Database REDD March 2018

Considerations

Spatial data - see full metadata for considerations http://qldspatial.information.qld.gov.au/catalogue/custom/viewMetadataDetails.page?uuid=%7BF5CF90D6-5881-4D8F-9581-D8F55D25F9CE%7D

Database - see full metadata for considerations http://qldspatial.information.qld.gov.au/catalogue/custom/viewMetadataDetails.page?uuid=%7BF5CF90D6-5881-4D8F-9581-D8F55D25F9CE%7D

Data quality

Spatial data - see full metadata for data quality http://qldspatial.information.qld.gov.au/catalogue/custom/viewMetadataDetails.page?uuid=%7BF5CF90D6-5881-4D8F-9581-D8F55D25F9CE%7D

Database - The database was developed using data compiled by the State of Queensland as represented by the Queensland Herbarium, Department of Environment and Science. While every effort has been made to ensure that the material contained in the database is accurate, the State of Queensland accepts no liability and gives no assurance in respect of its accuracy and shall not be liable for any loss or damage arising from the use of the database

License and availability

Spatial data - Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Australia Licence. This data is supplied by the Queensland Government. For more information and to download the spatial data visit https://www.qld.gov.au/environment/plants-animals/plants/ecosystems/remnant-vegetation

Database - Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 International Licence (CC-BY). Data can be downloaded from https://www.qld.gov.au/environment/plants-animals/plants/ecosystems/download

References

Pollino CA, Barber E, Buckworth R, Cadiegues M, Deng A, Ebner B, Kenyon R, Liedloff A, Merrin LE, Moeseneder C, Morgan D, Nielsen DL, O'Sullivan J, Ponce Reyes R, Robson BJ, Stratford DS, Stewart-Koster B, and Turschwell M (2018) Synthesis of knowledge to support the assessment of impacts of water resource development to ecological assets in northern Australia: asset descriptions. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia.

Title

Directory of Important Wetlands in Australia (DIWA) Spatial Database (Public). Data source - Australian Department of the Environment

Description and Purpose

This is a polygon coverage representing the wetlands of national importance as cited in the "A Directory of Important Wetlands in Australia" Third Edition (EA, 2001), plus various additions for wetlands listed after 2001. The criteria for the definition of a wetland used in this dataset is that adopted by the Ramsar Convention, namely: "areas of marsh, fen, peatland or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt, including areas of marine water the depth of which at low tide does not exceed six meters." This coverage is a compilation of various data sources and has been collected using a variety of methods. This dataset should therefore be used as an indicative guide only to wetland boundaries and locations. The data has been collated by the Australian Government Department of the Environment from various datasets including those supplied by the relevant State agencies.

For the identification of wetland boundaries or locations in regard to the compliance of activities with relevant State legislation, the relevant State authority should be contacted to obtain the most recent and accurate wetland boundary information available.

This dataset was one of the datasets used to identify ecological assets for NAWRA. Other ecological datasets used are described in the NAWRA ecological asset description report, Pollino et al. (2018) referenced below.

Resolution/scale

Various depending on the source data. See below lineage

Lineage

The coverage was largely derived from the TOPO250K.WATERBOD coverage (AUSLIG, 1992).

A significant portion of some of the wetland boundaries for each state have also been supplied directly from the relevant state agencies. These include the QLD Environmental Protection Agency, NSW Department of Environment and Conservation, and the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment. Data supplied from State agencies may have been collected using different collection methods. These may include remotely sensed images and digitized boundaries from topographic maps or aerial photos.

In general the accuracy of wetland boundaries may be taken to be approximately +/- 250m in most cases. In considering the accuracy of the wetland boundaries, users of this data should be aware of the dynamic nature of wetland boundaries and their likelihood of experiencing significant alteration over time due to climatic conditions.

Citation

Department of the Environment (2015) Directory of Important Wetlands in Australia (DIWA) Spatial Database (Public). Bioregional Assessment Source Dataset http://data.bioregionalassessments.gov.au/dataset/6636846e-e330-4110-afbb-7b89491fe567

Updates

None planned for this interface

Data release date

4 September 2018

Considerations

Several considerations are listed in the description and lineage sections of this metadata record. The full metadata record should be referenced for all information https://data.gov.au/dataset/6636846e-e330-4110-afbb-7b89491fe567

Data quality

In general the accuracy of wetland boundaries may be taken to be approximately +/- 250m in most cases

License and availability

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/ (c) Commonwealth of Australia (Department of the Environment). This data is supplied by the Australian Department of the Environment, Bioregional Assessment Programme. For the full metadata record and to download the spatial data go to https://data.gov.au/dataset/6636846e-e330-4110-afbb-7b89491fe567

References

Pollino CA, Barber E, Buckworth R, Cadiegues M, Deng A, Ebner B, Kenyon R, Liedloff A, Merrin LE, Moeseneder C, Morgan D, Nielsen DL, O'Sullivan J, Ponce Reyes R, Robson BJ, Stratford DS, Stewart-Koster B, and Turschwell M (2018) Synthesis of knowledge to support the assessment of impacts of water resource development to ecological assets in northern Australia: asset descriptions. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Water Resource Assessments. CSIRO, Australia.

Title

Flood inundation maps generated by the Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment

Description and Purpose

This dataset provides flood inundation extent and duration for the Fitzroy, Darwin and Mitchell catchments in Northern Australia for floods of different magnitudes and duration. The maps present the inundation duration in days for individual flood event. The main purpose of this data is to quantify the changes in flood inundation dynamics due to climate change and land development and to assess the ecological impacts of changed inundation metrics and hydrological connectivity.

Resolution/scale

30m pixel (Fitzroy and Mitchell), 60m pixel (Darwin)

Lineage

These data were generated from hydrodynamic modelling (MIKE21 model) results. Model outputs were processed in ArcGIS. Inundation extent/ duration was estimated by accumulating six hourly model outputs for the simulation period of 40 days. The data represent number of days each computational grid (30m x 30m) was inundated during the entire simulation period.

Citation

Karim, Fazlul; Pena Arancibia, Jorge; Ticehurst, Catherine; Marvanek, Steve; Gallant, John; Hughes, Justin; et al. Floodplain inundation mapping and modelling for the Fitzroy, Darwin and Mitchell catchments. Canberra: CSIRO Land and Water; 2018.

Updates

None planned

Data release date

1 August 2018

Considerations

In the Fitzroy catchment the hydrodynamic model was able to simulate spatial floodplain inundation patterns well (when compared to MODIS and Landsat water maps). The hydrodynamic models had reasonable skill in the Darwin and Mitchell catchments. The accuracy and reliability of hydrodynamic model simulations are a function of the input data quality, particularly topographic data. The overall hydrodynamic model performance for all the three catchments was better for large floods than medium sized events, and better for medium sized events than small events.

Data quality

These are the processed data in tiff format. The data have been cross-checked for consistency and reliability

License and availability

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/ (c) Commonwealth of Australia (Department of the Environment). This data is supplied by the Australian Department of the Environment, Bioregional Assessment Programme. For the full metadata record and to download the spatial data go to https://data.gov.au/dataset/6636846e-e330-4110-afbb-7b89491fe567