Clearing Control Catchments for Water Salinity Prevention

CAWSA Part 2A Clearing Control Catchments is a geospatial dataset from the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation for administering land clearing licenses. It delineates catchments proclaimed from 1976 to 1978 where native vegetation clearing is controlled to prevent water salinisation. The dataset also classifies zones of salinity risk within these catchments.

Use Cases

• Analyze spatial overlap between proclaimed catchments and current land use to assess regulatory coverage.
• Model salinity risk by evaluating the distribution of Zone A (highest risk) to Zone D (lowest risk) classifications.
• Support clearing license application reviews by mapping applicant properties against the controlled catchment boundaries.
• Inform policy decisions on native vegetation management by examining the historical proclamation areas from 1976-1978.

Strengths

• Provides legally mandated boundaries for clearing control under the Country Areas Water Supply Act 1947.
• Includes a detailed salinity risk zoning system (Zone A to D) for differentiated management.
• Maintained by the authoritative regulatory body, the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation.
• Offers data in multiple geospatial formats including GeoJSON, SHP, and Geopackage for interoperability.

Limitations

• The core spatial data reflects historical proclamations from 1976-1978 and may not reflect recent hydrological or land cover changes.
• Dataset utility is specific to Western Australia's CAWSA regulatory framework and may not be directly applicable elsewhere.
• Lacks attribute column details, limiting understanding of available non-spatial data for analysis.

Provenance

Source

Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (Western Australia)

Collection Method

Legislatively defined and administratively maintained for licensing and policy.

Time Range

Catchments proclaimed 1976-1978.

Freshness

Last updated March 2026.

Geography

Specific catchments within Western Australia, Australia.