Land Accounts
A single land account will compile national information on a range of land attributes including land use, land cover and land tenure.
The land account will provide a consistent spatial base layer that will form the foundation of other account types, including those for ecosystems and for decision making around land use activities.
The land account will enable us to understand economic activities and environmental processes take place across Australia’s landscape, including urbanisation, crop and animal production, deforestation, the use of water resources and other uses of land resources.
The land account can be used to inform policy and operational decision-making, with key uses including:
- general environmental monitoring and evaluation, particularly of land cover, change in vegetation and understanding where and when a change has occurred;
- policy or program evaluation; and
- decision support and trade off analysis. For example, understanding whether certain types of land use will lead to better environmental and economic outcomes such as agricultural production.
The Experimental National Land Account are expected to be completed in mid-2020, with analysis and reporting to follow in the second half of the year. This will form the basis of consultation with stakeholders before being finalised as a formal account.
