730b92f8-5d92-448d-81a4-030eedd18d91 urn:uuid en UTF-8 nonGeographicDataset nonGeographicDataset 2025-11-13T00:34:10 creation ISO 19115 2016 NSW Land Cover Theme 730b92f8-5d92-448d-81a4-030eedd18d91 NSW Land Cover Theme Land cover is the visible, biophysical cover on the Earth’s surface including trees, shrubs, grasses, soils, exposed rocks and water bodies, as well as anthropogenic elements such as plantations, crops and built environments. Land cover changes for many reasons, including seasonal weather, severe weather events such as cyclones, floods and fires, and human activities such as mining, agriculture and urbanisation.   Remote sensing data recorded over a period of time allows the observation of land cover dynamics. Classifying these responses provides a robust and repeatable way of characterising land cover types. These complement on ground survey where available.   Datasets included in the Land Cover Theme: NSW Interim Native Vegetation Extent (2008-v2)NSW SLATS LANDSAT Woody Change: Derived VectorDatabase 1988 – 2010Plant Community Type ClassificationLand UseSoil LandscapesLandscapes and SoilsSoil data online The Land Cover theme is an essential and authoritative source of information that can provide insight into the behaviour of land cover to a wide variety of conditions, both natural and situational.   This provides natural resource managers with the capacity to identify emerging patterns of land cover change and provides a broad spatial and historical context within which to interpret that land cover change.   This can be combined with other information to assess if any pro- active intervention is required to alter change happening to the land cover.   Information about Land Cover dynamics is essential to understanding and addressing a range of national challenges including: mapping and monitoring land use, natural resources, biodiversity, water usage, drought, pollution, minerals, water quality, wetlands, groundwater dependent ecosystems, land clearing, floodplains, crop acreage and growth, remnant vegetation, land degradation, irrigation, dry land salinity, and vegetation condition management of forests, rivers, fisheries, catchments and agriculture national and state inventories of forests, greenhouse gases, endangered species, land cover, topography, and carbon sinks emergency management of floods, bushfires and landslides. The NSW Department of Planning and Environment – Environment and Heritage Group is the source of truth for this data theme. The Environment and Heritage Group manages the state-wide vegetation, soils and land use datasets needed to support the Land Cover definitions. The current status of the land cover related datasets are as listed. Datasets included in the Land Cover Theme: NSW Native Vegetation Extent For access to data please use below URLhttps://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/topics/animals-and-plants/biodiversity/nsw-bionet/about-bionet-vegetation-classification/bionet-vegetation-maps/vegetation-extent-and-condition-products#native Woody Extent and Foliage  For access to data please use below URL https://datasets.seed.nsw.gov.au/dataset/landsat-woody-extent-and-foliage-projective-cover-fpc-ver-2-1-25m-20087355d Plant Community Type Classification For access to data please use below URLhttps://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/topics/animals-and-plants/biodiversity/nsw-bionet/nsw-plant-community-type-classificationLand Use For access to data please use below URLhttps://datasets.seed.nsw.gov.au/dataset/nsw-landuse-2017-v1p2-f0ed Soil Landscapes Landscapes and Soils Soil data onlineFor access to data please use below URLhttps://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/topics/land-and-soil/information/espade alternatively, eSpade can be access through the link below http://espade.environment.nsw.gov.au/ NSW Soil and Land Information System (SALIS) For access to data please use the URL  http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/Salis5app/Main/Account/Login The Electronic Digital Infield Regolith Tool (eDIRT) For access to data please use the URL  http://edirt.environment.nsw.gov.au/ Custodian agency and contact:   Environment and Heritage Group  Head Office PO Box A290 Sydney South NSW 1232 Email: info@environment.nsw.gov.au  Metadata Portal Metadata Information Content Title NSW Land Cover Theme Content Type Document Description The Land Cover theme is an essential and authoritative source of information that can provide insight into the behaviour of land cover to a wide variety of conditions, both natural and situational Initial Publication Date 11/02/2020 Data Currency 18/08/2023 Data Update Frequency Other Content Source File Type Document Attribution Data Theme, Classification or Relationship to other Datasets Accuracy Spatial Reference System (dataset) Other Spatial Reference System (web service) Other WGS84 Equivalent To Other Spatial Extent Content Lineage Data Classification Unclassified Data Access Policy Open Data Quality Terms and Conditions Creative Commons Standard and Specification Data Custodian NSW Spatial Services Point of Contact Please contact us via the Spatial Services Customer Hub Data Aggregator Environment and Heritage Group  Email: info@environment.nsw.gov.au Data Distributor Additional Supporting Information TRIM Number Land Cover Land Use Landscapes Plant Community type SLATS Soil Landscapes Soil data Soils Vegetation Extent Woody Change