Australian Irrigation Area Boundaries From National Land Audit

Vector and raster data delineating designated and actual irrigation areas across Australia. The dataset was compiled by the National Land and Water Resources Audit, integrating boundaries from multiple state and basin-level agencies. It was constructed using ARC/INFO and ArcView software from source material of variable scale.

Use Cases

• Overlay irrigation boundaries with the 1996/97 Land Use of Australia raster dataset to analyze land use changes in irrigated zones.
• Identify designated irrigation areas, which have administratively defined water use rights, for regulatory compliance mapping.
• Map actual irrigation areas, defined by observational boundaries, to assess the spatial footprint of irrigation practices.
• Compare state-level data from sources like Agriculture WA and the Queensland Department of Natural Resources for regional policy analysis.

Strengths

• Data is available in both vector and raster formats with matching coordinate systems for easy overlay.
• Compiled from authoritative state and national agencies including the Murray-Darling Basin Commission.

Limitations

• Coverage completeness is poor in some regions, with irrigated areas existing outside the mapped boundaries.
• The scale and meaning of 'designated irrigation area' varies significantly between source regions.

Provenance

Source

National Land and Water Resources Audit, with data from Agriculture WA, Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines, Murray-Darling Basin Commission, NSW Department of Land and Water Conservation, and Tasmanian Department of Primary Industries.

Collection Method

Constructed in vector format by appending boundary datasets from various agencies, processed in ARC/INFO 7.2.1 and ArcView 3.1.

Time Range

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Freshness

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Geography

Australia