Western Australia Groundwater Resource Administrative Boundaries

Groundwater Resources are administrative units for managing extraction limits in Western Australia. The dataset defines these units, which are typically intersections of groundwater Subareas and Aquifer boundaries. Data is maintained by the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation and was last updated in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Analyze the spatial relationship between Groundwater Resources and Aquifer boundaries to assess management unit definitions.
• Map Groundwater Subareas and their administrative boundaries for licensing and extraction oversight.
• Identify areas where Groundwater Resource boundaries deviate from the intersection of Subarea and Aquifer for data review purposes.

Strengths

• Data is provided in multiple geospatial formats including SHP, GEOJSON, and GEOPACKAGE for tool flexibility.
• Managed by the authoritative state department (Department of Water and Environmental Regulation) for groundwater.
• Includes a note on an ongoing review program for boundary accuracy, indicating active maintenance.

Limitations

• Groundwater Area boundaries in the system do not accurately reflect officially gazetted boundaries, introducing potential spatial inaccuracy.
• Groundwater Resources are not always defined by the intersection of Subarea and Aquifer, creating inconsistency in unit logic.
• The descriptive metadata notes a boundary review program from 2005, suggesting some definitions may be outdated.

Provenance

Source

Department of Water and Environmental Regulation, Geospatial and Data Services Manager.

Collection Method

Stored in the Water Resource Information Management System (WRIMS).

Time Range

null

Freshness

Last updated March 2026.

Geography

State of Western Australia.