ACT Potential Erosion Hazard: Salinity Ratings for Hydrogeological Landscape Units

Digital spatial data for the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) captured at 1:25,000 scale. It contains hazard ratings for land salinity, stream salt load, and stream EC, along with landscape function information and management strategies for each Hydrogeological Landscape (HGL) unit. The dataset was developed by Rob Muller, Wayne Cook, Allan Nicholson, and Alie Cowood for land management decision-making.

Use Cases

• Assessing land salinity hazard ratings for agricultural planning based on HGL unit classifications.
• Evaluating stream salt load and EC (electrical conductivity) for water quality monitoring.
• Identifying appropriate salinity management strategies based on landscape function descriptions.
• Integrating geological, soil, slope, and climate data for hydrogeological landscape modeling.
• Supporting site assessment for potential land use or development using standardized unit descriptions.

Strengths

• Captured at a 1:25,000 scale, suitable for paddock-scale assessment.
• Incorporates multiple information sources: soil landscape maps, site characterisation, salinity occurrence maps, hydrogeological data, and surface/groundwater data.
• Provides hyperlinks to full management descriptions for each Hydrogeological Landscape (HGL) unit.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The ACT Government disclaimer states the map may not be free from error.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

ACT Government Geospatial Data Catalogue (ACTmapi), with credits to Rob Muller (NSW OEH), Wayne Cook (NSW OEH), Allan Nicholson (NSW DPI), Alie Cowood (UC).

Collection Method

Developed through the integration of causative factors (geology, soils, slope, regolith thickness, climate) and various data sources to delineate Hydrogeological Landscape units.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-04 03:01:48.655875; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australian Capital Territory (ACT), mapped in GDA1994 MGA Zone 55s and transformed to GDA2020 MGA Zone 55s.