Directory of Important Wetlands in Australia (DIWA) Spatial Database (Public)

Abstract

This dataset and its metadata statement were supplied to the Bioregional Assessment Programme by a third party and are presented here as originally supplied.

This is a polygon coverage representing the wetlands cited in the "A Directory of Important Wetlands in Australia" Third Edition (EA, 2001), plus various additions for wetlands listed after 2001.

This coverage is a compilation of various data sources and has been collected using a variety of methods. This dataset should therefore be used as an indicative guide only to wetland boundaries and locations. The data has been collated by the Australian Government Department of the Environment from various datasets including those supplied by the relevant State agencies.

State agency contributors include the Queensland Environmental Protection Authority, NSW Department of Environment and Conservation and the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment.

For the identification of wetland boundaries or locations in regard to the compliance of activities with relevant State legislation, the relevant State authority should be contacted to obtain the most recent and accurate wetland boundary information available.

The criteria for the definition of a wetland used in this dataset is that adopted by the Ramsar Convention, namely: "areas of marsh, fen, peatland or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt, including areas of marine water the depth of which at low tide does not exceed six meters."

Attributes in the dataset include:

WNAME: the name of the wetland site as listed in the Directory.

REFCODE: an individual reference number including a cross reference to the State in which it occurs. The first 2-3 characters relate to the State or Territory of origin followed by the 3 digit sequential wetland numeric code. (e.g. "NSW001": NSW=New South Wales; 001=wetland number).

SOURCE: the data source for the polygon.

FEAT_CODE: description of the waterbody's hydrographic feature (e.g. 'lake', 'swamp'). This attribute is derived from the TOPO250K.WATERBOD coverage.

STATE: the State or Territory in which the waterbody occurs.

SUPPLY_BY: the name of the agency that supplied the boundary of a wetland and date of supply to the Department

This data was updated on 23/03/2010. The wetlands of "Lake Cowal/Wilbertroy Wetlands" (Refcode: NSW040) has an additional small polygon about 600 km away. It is considered as an error. This additional small polygon was removed.

Credit:

QLD Environmental Protection Agency, June 2005.

Credit:

VIC Department of Sustainability and Environment, April 2004.

Credit:

NSW Department of Environment and Conservation, March 2004

Credit:

Australian Surveying and Land Information Group (1994) TOPO-250K;

Credit:

Department of the Environment and Heritage (1998) CAPAD V2.0;

Credit:

Department of the Environment and Heritage (1997) National Estate - Important Wetlands;

Credit:

ANCA (1996) A Directory of Important Wetlands in Australia 2nd ed;

Credit:

Department of the Environment and Heritage (2001) A Directory of Important Wetlands in Australia 3rd ed.

Dataset History

The coverage was largely derived from the TOPO250K.WATERBOD coverage (AUSLIG, 1992).

A significant portion of some of the wetland boundaries for each state have also been supplied directly from the relevant state agencies. These include the QLD Environmental Protection Agency, NSW Department of Environment and Conservation, and the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment.

Data supplied from State agencies may have been collected using different collection methods. These may include remotely sensed images and digitized boundaries from topographic maps or aerial photos.

For the identification of wetland boundaries or locations in regard to the compliance of activities with relevant State legislation, the relevant State authority should be contacted to obtain the most recent and accurate boundary information available.

In general the accuracy of wetland boundaries may be taken to be approximately +/- 250m in most cases.

In considering the accuracy of the wetland boundaries, users of this data should be aware of the dynamic nature of wetland boundaries and their likelihood of experiencing significant alteration over time due to climatic conditions.

Additional datasets used in compiling the Directory of Important Wetlands spatial data include:

Collaborative Australian Protected Areas Database CAPAD (Version 2.0, 1998)

National Estate, Important Wetlands Tasmania (WETLANDSREP97)

20M BUFFERED CENTROIDS: derived from coordinates (DMS) contained in the Wetlands Inventory 2nd Ed. (ANCA, 1996) & 3rd Ed. (EA, 2001).

Location of Cook Island Nature Reserve (off the NSW north coast) updated to match NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change data.

Feburary 2008:

Missing External Territories added to dataset (20M BUFFERED CENTROIDS: derived from coordinates (DMS) as listed in the Australian Wetlands Database, 2001). Missing SA site Upper Hindmarsh River Catchment - SA035 recovered from archives.

September 2008

100 Arce Swamp and Lake Macquarie added.

November 2014

Licence model changed to Creative Commons by Attribution

Dataset Citation

Department of the Environment (2015) Directory of Important Wetlands in Australia (DIWA) Spatial Database (Public). Bioregional Assessment Source Dataset. Viewed 13 March 2019, http://data.bioregionalassessments.gov.au/dataset/6636846e-e330-4110-afbb-7b89491fe567.