2.3.3 Ecosystems

Summary

A landscape classification was developed to categorise the nature of water dependency among the diverse range of assets, based on key landscape properties related to patterns in geology, terrain, hydrology and vegetation (both natural and modified ecosystems). The process of devising and implementing a landscape classification for the Clarence-Moreton preliminary assessment extent (PAE) mainly involved combining existing classes within datasets associated with aquatic and groundwater-dependent ecosystems, vegetation and land use mapping. Where appropriate, the approach outlined in this product was built on and integrated existing classification systems. Classifiers or attributes are described on which landscape features were categorised and their corresponding rule sets for spatial data initially represented as polygons (e.g. wetlands), lines (stream network) and points (e.g. springs). The majority of the PAE (60.3%) is a modified landscape with by far the largest landscape class being ‘Dryland agriculture’ (57.5%). Natural vegetation landscape classes cover 37.8% of the PAE, with ‘Woodland’ being the most prevalent of these (23.3%), then ‘Open forest’ (8.0%) and ‘Rainforest’ (5.2%). Aspects of water dependency for each landscape class are discussed.

Last updated:
5 March 2019
Thumbnail images of the Clarence-Moreton bioregion

Product Finalisation date

2017