Features and Limitations

Caution Notes For User

Key limitations of this data set relate to its spatial and temporal coverage, spatial resolution and canopy attribute accuracy.

• The data cover the intensive land use zone of Australia. This is about 40% of the continent. Figure 1 in the data documentation (see Documentation link below left) shows the spatial coverage of the data.
• The data is only available for 1990/91 and 1995 and significant land cover changes will have occurred in some areas where available hydrologic data is from a different time period. Some local knowledge is required to judge how significant this issue is in a particular context of locality and time.
• Vegetation varies at scales smaller than the 1km resolution of this data set. For some applications higher resolutions are desirable.
• The canopy attributes (height and percentage cover) should only be considered as first approximations, typical of that vegetation community. The presence of lower and middle story vegetation and its properties can have an important impact on hydrological impact of the vegetation. These are ignored in the data set.