Annual Inundation Extent of Commonwealth Environmental Water in the Murray-Darling Basin

Annual maximum extent maps of Commonwealth environmental water delivery across the Murray-Darling Basin floodplains, wetlands, and rivers from 2014 onward. The dataset, prepared by the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder, combines Sentinel-2 satellite imagery, state government maps, and field reports at 25-meter resolution. These raster and polyline layers support the evaluation of environmental watering outcomes by the Flow-MER monitoring program.

Use Cases

• Evaluating the effectiveness of environmental water delivery based on annual maximum inundation extents.
• Modeling wetland ecosystem responses based on mapped water influence with high and low certainty classifications.
• Conducting spatial-temporal trend analysis of Commonwealth environmental water contribution from 2014 to present.
• Integrating satellite-derived inundation layers with other hydrological or ecological datasets for basin-scale studies.

Strengths

• Provides a continuous annual record from the start of the program in 2014.
• Combines multiple data sources including Sentinel-2 imagery at 10m resolution, state government maps, and field validation.
• Includes pixel-level attribution for water source certainty (e.g., high certainty influence, low certainty influence, other environmental water).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The dataset for 'other environmental water' is noted as likely incomplete and should not be used alone.
• Data is currently in ESRI Geodatabase format, which may require specific GIS software or libraries for access.

Provenance

Source

Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder

Collection Method

Derived from satellite imagery (Sentinel-2), acquittal reporting, and mapping provided by state agencies and project teams.

Time Range

Annual data from 2014 onward.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-04 02:13:16.876189; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Murray-Darling Basin, Australia.