Integrated Vegetation Information for NAP and NRM Regions

How to use the Integrated Vegetation Cover Maps

Users of maps generated from the on-line mapping tool should note that while the data can be displayed at scales larger than 1:100,000 scales, the developers of the Dataset recommend the on-line maps not be displayed or printed at scales larger than 1:100,000 scale. Provided users acknowledge that the minimum scale of the information presented in these maps varies from 1:100,000 to 1:2,500,000 scale, the information that is presented can be used as follows:

• The maps can be used at a regional level to examine the area and per cent of each NAP or NRM region according to vegetation cover classes, as identified by DAFF. These classes include native and non-native, woody and non-woody, perennial crops, annual crops, forests, watercourses, plantations and non-vegetated land.
• The maps, combined with the detailed data that underlie them, can be integrated with other biophysical information to indicate areas of risk or threat for sustainable production e.g. soil erosion or salinity hazard.
• These maps can also be integrated with social and economic spatial information to identify and document the values which regional communities place on their vegetation e.g. native vegetation in national parks and reserves and fragmentation of native vegetation. The Bureau is investigating publishing an integrated assessment of the social and economic values of regional vegetation through a 'Vegetation Matters' publication.
• These maps can assist in discussions of trade-offs e.g. costs and benefits of using vegetation cover to redress water quality and erosion hazards.
• These maps can also be combined with position in the catchment to answer such questions as:
  - 'what types of vegetation and their relative areas (hectares) are found in the lower, mid and upper parts of each catchment' and
  - 'what types of vegetation and their relative areas (hectares) are found in the riparian zones'
• By archiving these datasets for different catchments it should be possible track changes in vegetation cover types and relate these changes to other natural resources management issues e.g. types of native vegetation and their relative areas (hectares) that have been protected in formal and informal reserves between time 1 and time 2.