Murray-Darling Basin Water Quality Zones Based on Altitude

March 2010 snapshot of water quality regions within Australia's Murray-Darling Basin. The Murray-Darling Basin Authority derived these zones from Sustainable Rivers Audit valley zones, subdividing catchments into seven altitude-based categories. This dataset was used to inform the development of the Basin Plan.

Use Cases

• Classifying river segments into one of seven altitude zone categories (e.g., Montane, Upland, Lowland) for regional water quality modeling.
• Analyzing the spatial distribution of geomorphologic and geophysical landscape characteristics that define water quality regions.
• Spatially joining water quality parameter data to these defined zones for aggregated analysis across the Murray-Darling Basin.
• Providing a foundational geospatial layer for assessing river health as part of the Sustainable Rivers Audit program framework.

Strengths

• Defined by the authoritative Murray-Darling Basin Authority for use in the official Basin Plan.
• Built on the Sustainable Rivers Audit valley zones, a program for comprehensive river health assessment.
• Zones are categorized into seven specific altitude-based classes (e.g., Montane, Lowland).

Limitations

• Data represents a single snapshot from March 2010 and may not reflect current landscape or hydrological conditions.
• Specific row counts, spatial resolution, and validation metrics for the zone boundaries are not provided.
• Derived from a specific coordinate system (GDA94) which may require transformation for integration with newer Australian spatial data.

Provenance

Source

Murray-Darling Basin Authority, derived from the Sustainable Rivers Audit program.

Collection Method

Constructed in GDA94 coordinate system using Australian Water Resources Council catchment layers, subdivided into altitude zones.

Time Range

March 2010

Freshness

null

Geography

Murray-Darling Basin, Australia