The Tasmanian land use 2015 spatial data set is produced at catchment scale which is undertaken through the Australian Collaborative Land Use and Management Program (ACLUMP) using standards set out in the 'Guidelines for land use mapping in Australia: principals, procedures and definitions, 4th edition 2011' and âAddendum to the Guidelines for land use mapping in Australia: principles, procedures and definition, 4th Editionâ. Land use is classified by its prime use using a hierarchical structure, Australian Land Use and Management Classification (ALUMC) v8, which allows attribution as broad classes to individual commodities. This produces nationally consistent land use mapping to plan for and achieve productive agriculture and prosperous regional communities. Land use information shows how we use the landscape, whether that is for food production, forestry, nature conservation, water storage or urban development. The data set has been derived through spatial analysis of ancillary data sets, interpretation from imagery (Google Earth, State Orthophoto and Landsat composite) and expert knowledge through stakeholder engagements. The development of a modelling process to create the data set allows a repeatable process for future iterations of land use mapping. The land use mapping coverage is available for mixed dates at a scale that varies according to the intensity of land use activities and landscape context.
This iteration of land use mapping is for improved biosecurity outcomes to improve biosecurity risk management and emergency disease preparedness through updated land use mapping of horticulture and intensive animal production. Land use mapping is completed to the secondary and tertiary level with commodity information for priority land use classes focusing on dairy grazing, sheds and yards, vineyards, stock aggregation points and nurseries.
Australian Land Use and Management Classification (ALUMC) v8 comprises of five primary classes, identified in order of increasing levels of intervention or potential impact on the natural landscape. Water is included separately as a sixth primary class. Primary and secondary levels relate to the principal land use. Tertiary classes may include additional information on commodity groups, specific commodities, land management practices or vegetation information. The primary, secondary and tertiary codes work together to provide increasing levels of detail about the land use. Land may be subject to a number of concurrent land uses. For example, while the main management objective of a multiple-use production forest may be timber production, it may also provide conservation, recreation, grazing and water catchment land uses. In these cases, production forestry is commonly identified in the ALUM code as the prime land use.
The primary classes of land use in the ALUM Classification are:
1. Conservation and natural environments - land used primarily for conservation purposes, based on maintaining the essentially natural ecosystems present
2. Production from relatively natural environments - land used mainly for primary production with limited change to the native vegetation
3. Production from dryland agriculture and plantations - land used mainly for primary production based on dryland farming systems
4. Production from irrigated agriculture and plantations - land used mostly for primary production based on irrigated farming
5. Intensive uses - land subject to extensive modification, generally in association with closer residential settlement, commercial or industrial uses
6. Water - water features (water is regarded as an essential aspect of the classification, even though it is primarily a land cover type, not a land use)
