Queensland Land Use Mapping Program
The Queensland Land Use Mapping Program (QLUMP) is a collaborative project between the Department of Natural Resources & Water (NRW) and the Bureau of Rural Sciences (BRS). It is part of the Australian Collaborative Land Use Mapping Program (ACLUMP) which involves agencies in the Australian Government and all state and territories. QLUMP is one of the programs undertaken within the Remote Sensing Centre at Natural Resource Sciences, the science arm of the department.
QLUMP maps and assesses patterns of land use and land use change across the state. The datasets are used by government, the private sector, research agencies and community groups for natural resource assessment, monitoring and planning.
QLUMP has produced a baseline dataset of landuse in 1999 for the entire state totalling 79 catchments in accordance with the Australian Land Use and Management (ALUM) classification (see Fig 1). A technical report describing the 1999 land use data is also available by contacting Simone Grounds.
Land use change mapping from 1999 to 2004 is currently underway in priority catchments. The nominal scale for mapping is 1:50 000 in the coastal zone and 1:100 000 in the pastoral zone and areas of low intensity land use.
Fig 1 - 79 Major drainage catchments of Queensland
Land use vs land cover
The department through its Remote Sensing Centre provides maps of both land use and land cover. Land use describes what the land is used for; for example, grazing, irrigated cropping, mining, residential or conservation. Land cover describes the physical surface of the earth; for example, forest, pasture, water or urban.
QLUMP provides spatial data on land use. The Statewide Landcover and Trees Study (SLATS) provides spatial data on tree cover including annual change to the extent of Queensland’s forests and woodlands. More information on SLATS can be found here.
Mapping bananas in North Queensland following Cyclone Larry
QLUMP staff in Mareeba and Indooroopilly recently undertook a project in partnership with the University of Queensland and the Australian Banana Growers’ Council to map bananas in North Queensland following Cyclone Larry. This involved the use of high resolution Spot 5 satellite imagery and successfully trialed relatively new object-classification algorithms. The products include detailed mapping of banana plantation for 2006.
Last updated: 01 August 2008