Whassup DAFWA? Spatial data in the Department of Agriculture and Food WA February 2010

Geographic Information Services  Dedicated group within the Department since  Role: To provide a spatial data service to support the business and activities of the Department and the wider Agricultural Industry.  Part of Business Services Division, Information Services Branch.  13 permanent staff based in South Perth + Contractors.  15 staff based across nine regional offices.  Software platform Intergraph GeoMedia.  Major datasets stored in Oracle Spatial format, also GeoMedia warehouse (MS Access).  Metadata maintained in Interragator+.

Major Custodial Datasets  Client Property Database.  Current extent of remnant vegetation.  Pre-European vegetation.  Soil-landscape/land system mapping.  Land Use.

Client Property Database  Landgate parcel data are the ‘building blocks’.  Stored in Oracle Spatial.  Available to all Department staff via intranet interface.  Updated daily by GIS staff.  Essential service to support the biosecurity and regulatory operations of the Department.  Contact details restricted to Department use.

Client Property Database

Current Extent of Native Vegetation  Vector dataset captured using the best available aerial photo mosaics.  Scale of capture in the process of being upgraded from 1:100, 000 to 1:20, 000.  Distinguishes between native vegetation and plantations.  Updated on a regular basis.  Intersected with pre-European vegetation to obtain current extent by type dataset.

 Scale status  Date status Current Extent of Native Vegetation

Pre-European Vegetation  Comprehensive vegetation map of WA.  Scale of capture 1:250, 000 based on work of J.S. Beard.  Compatible with National Vegetation Information System.  Last updated 2005.

Soil-landscape/land system mapping  Vector dataset captured from mapping carried out by DAFWA Land Resource Assessment Group and incorporating earlier mapping by CSIRO.  Hierarchical system of mapping.  Database of some 60,000 soil profile observations.  Complete coverage of the agricultural area at subsystem/phase level. Scale of mapping varies from 1:50, 000 on the coastal plain to 1:250, 000 in the eastern wheatbelt.  Comprehensive set of land quality and land capability attribution.  Rangeland land system and Atlas of Australian Soils incorporated into a statewide dataset.  WA layer in the Australian Soil Resource Information System

Soil-landscape mapping (cont.)  Widely used for shire, regional and local planning purposes.  Major information source for reports such as State of the Environment.  Survey program complete but some areas are undergoing upscaling, occasional updates.  Available to public via the SLIP NRM Info interface.  Metadata maintained in Interragator+ on a survey basis and also a generic metadata statement for the complete dataset.

Soil-landscape mapping

Land Use  First produced for National Land and Water Resources Audit  Property-based land use.  2006-Present project to map land use at sub-property level on a sub-catchment basis using aerial photo interpretation and limited field survey.  Builds on perennial horticulture survey and datasets from DAFWA and other agencies (reserves, current extent of native vegetation, town planning schemes etc.).  Land use classified according to Australian Land Use and Management Classification V6.  Data capture in progress as funding permits.

Land Use

Other Projects/datasets  BioSIRT – National biosecurity incident and surveillance data management system.  Weed Watcher – Web-based portal for Australian Weeds Research Council.  Climate mapping for monthly Department Seasonal Outlook.  Pastoral lease infrastructure plans.  Mapping and Spatial Analysis tasks in support of Departmental activities eg. Agri-business precinct location study, Drought reform pilot study, small landholder workshops, GM Canola growers.