Murray-Darling Basin Water Quality Regions And Altitude Zones

Murray-Darling Basin water quality regions and zones are defined as of March 2010. The dataset was derived by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority from the Sustainable Rivers Audit program, categorizing zones into seven altitude-based types like Montane and Lowland. It was constructed using the GDA94 coordinate system and the Australian Water Resources Council catchment layer.

Use Cases

• Classifying river segments into one of seven altitude zone categories (e.g., Montane, Upland, Lowland) for stratified water quality analysis.
• Mapping water quality regions based on geomorphologic and geophysical landscape characteristics for the Basin Plan guide.
• Joining water quality parameter data using the defined regions and altitude zones for spatial trend modeling.
• Analyzing the relationship between altitude zones and water quality metrics across the basin's catchment layers.

Strengths

• Derived from the authoritative Sustainable Rivers Audit program by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority.
• Provides a defined spatial framework of regions and zones used in the official Basin Plan guide.
• Includes multiple geospatial file formats (GEOJSON, SHP, WFS) for interoperability.

Limitations

• Data represents a single snapshot from March 2010, lacking temporal updates or trends.
• Specific row counts, sample sizes, and detailed column schemas are unavailable for validation.
• Relies on the 2010 Australian Water Resources Council catchment layer, which may be outdated.

Provenance

Source

Murray-Darling Basin Authority, Sustainable Rivers Audit program.

Collection Method

Derived from SRA Valley Zones, constructed in GDA94 using AWRC catchment layer and subdivided into altitude zones.

Time Range

March 2010.

Freshness

Snapshot from March 2010, though metadata was last updated in April 2026.

Geography

Murray-Darling Basin, Australia.