Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia

Metadata Statement

Title: Pre-European Vegetation – Western Australia (NVIS Compliant version 20110715) Custodian: Department of Agriculture and Food Western Australia Jurisdiction: Western Australia

Abstract: The pre-European vegetation mapping of Western Australia dataset is an output of a joint project between DAFWA and DEC.

Published as Beard, J. S., Beeston, G.R., Harvey, J.M., Hopkins, A. J. M. and Shepherd, D. P. 2013. The vegetation of Western Australia at the 1:3,000,000 scale. Explanatory memoir. Second edition. Conservation Science Western Australia 9: 1-152.

The major sources of data in this database are the published and unpublished mapping of J.S. Beard at 1:250,000 scale. There are c 30,000 polygons covering 160 1:250,000 map sheets. Data on the original vegetation of all of Western Australia, with the exception of three map sheets in the south-west corner, were captured from J S Beard’s original working drawings, where these were available, or from published maps, all at the scale of 1:250,000. For the three map sheets in the south-west corner, a new data set was compiled in a form consistent with Beard’s approach, from existing data (A.J.M. Hopkins, unpublished).

Search Words(s): Pre-European, Vegetation, Vegetation type, National Vegetation Information System (NVIS), Western Australia

Geographic Extent: Western Australia Beginning Date: 1986 Ending Date: Current Progress: Completed Update Frequency: Non-planned Stored Data Formats: Oracle Spatial, GeoMedia warehouse Available Data Formats: GeoMedia warehouse and Arc View Shape files Access Constraint: License on request

Lineage: The original photo reduced maps on acetate sheets were digitised using Microstation. Tabular data about the vegetation in each of the map polygons is stored in ORACLE tables. The dataset has subsequently been transferred to Geomedia Access Data warehouse and ORACLE Spatial data formats. The following revisions of the original database have been made:  Spatial rectification of the dataset to topographic features from the State topographic dataset (primarily using the coastline and lakes),  Correction of dataset attribution of on mapsheet edges,  Correction of boundaries to some map units,  Creation of a new Vegetation Systems map (based on 1:250,000 map unit boundaries) that forms a Scale hierarchy with the 1:250,000 scale map units and IBRA (Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation of Australia, Thackway & Cresswell eds. 1995) regions and sub-regions.

 April 2010: Correction of some boundaries specifically in the Shark Bay, Ord, Nullarbor and Murchison regions. Rectification using orthophotography mosaics supplied to DAFWA by the Western Australian Land Information Authority.

 August 25 2010: Update to attribution of some Vegetation Associations to align with updates to SuperGroup allocations on the State-wide map.

 November 30 2010: Update to attribution of dataset to align with updates to SuperGroup allocations on the State-wide map. Correction of some boundaries in the Pilbara region. Rectification using orthophotography mosaics supplied to DAFWA by the Western Australian Land Information Authority.

 July 15 2011: Rectification of some coastal boundaries in the Pilbara region using aerial photography. Three new vegetation associations created in the Lake Argyle area.

 August 14 2012: Corrections made to Vegetation Association labels:  VA 1058 south of Merredin changed to VA 1055  VA 881 in the East Kimberley changed to VA 707  VA 800 near Esperance changed to VA 931

 October 2 2012: Topological errors (overlaps/slivers) corrected.

Positional Accuracy: Original mapping was marked onto controlled aerial photo- mosaics scale 1:63:360 for the south-west and 1:100,000 (some of which were uncontrolled photo-indexes) for the remainder of the state. This was photo-reduced to a scale of 1:250,000 in the south-west and 1:1:000,000 for the rest of the state for compilation.

Attribute Accuracy: Attribute data have been compiled in accordance with the Australian Vegetation Attributes (Version 6.0) making the attributes compliant with the National Vegetation Information System (NVIS). Attributes: ID_LUT Lookup table ID SYSTEM Vegetation System CELL_NO Vegetation cell number ORIG_ID Original polygon ID SYSTEM_ASSOCIATION System Association description SA_CODE System Association code MAPUNIT_ID Map unit identifier ID Unique polygon identifier VEG_ASSOC Beard Vegetation Association VEG_TYPE State Vegetation Map Type STRUCT_DESC State Vegetation Map Structural Description FLOR_DESC State Vegetation Map Floristic Description

Logical Consistency: The dataset has been checked for errors and edge-matched where possible. Some edge matching issues remain, but these are of a botanical nature and cannot be resolved without remapping. Topological errors have been corrected and checked using GeoMedia Professional and ArcGIS.

Contact Organisation: Department of Agriculture and Food Western Australia Contact Person: GIS Data Administrator Mail Address: 3 Baron-Hay Court Rd Locality: South Perth State: Western Australia Country: Australia Postcode: 6983 Telephone: (08) 9368 3841 Facsimile: (08) 9368 3939 Email Address: [email protected] Metadata Date: 05 June 2013