Combined vegetation maps relevant to the Riverina Bioregional Project. VIS_ID 4175

Combined vegetation maps relevant to the Riverina Bioregion created for the Riverina Project. VIS_ID 981

A vegetation survey of Oxley Wild Rivers National Park & adjoining areas was carried out. An unpublished report was prepared by Greg Roberts, NPWS Armidale Office.

Bluff River Nature Reserve vegetation mapping was undertaken by Dr John T. Hunter in 2002 by contract for the NPWS Northern Tableland Region. It is described in the Vegetation and Floristics of the Tenterfield Nature Reserves report which includes Bluff River, Bolivia Hill, Curry’s Gap, Gibraltar & Mt McKenzie. All reserves lie north of Glenn Innes and south of Tenterfield on the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales and the New England Tablelands Bioregion. The local government regions for all reserves are the Tenterfield Shire and the County of Clive. Bluff River NR is located approximately 35 km north of Deepwater and incorporates 1793 ha. The vegetation of five reserves within the Tenterfield area is described and mapped (scale 1:50 000). Fifteen communities are defined based on PATN analysis and an additional community is mapped based on information derived from previous investigations. These fifteen communities were mapped based on ground truthing, air photo interpretation and landform. Seven communities are considered of conservation importance with two of which were considered endangered and one should be considered vulnerable. Most communities are of woodland structure, although sedgelands, heaths, grasslands, open forests and tall open forests also occur. Many of the communities show considerable variation and intergrade along common boundaries and in particular on intermediate soil types. Physiography was the major correlative influence on community distribution, however protection from the north west and east, time since fire, grazing and geographic locality were also strongly correlated. VIS_ID 4714

The files linked to this reference are the geospatial data created as part of the completion of the baseline vegetation inventory project for the NPS park unit. Current format is ArcGIS file geodatabase but older formats may exist as shapefiles. Following development of vegetation classifications after plot sampling, the preliminary vegetation map was further edited and refined in 2005. Using ArcGIS 9.0, polygon boundaries were revised on-screen based on plot data and additional field observations collected during 2004 field visits. Field notes and limited field mapping supplemented GIS mapping. Each polygon was attributed with a map class name that is the common name of a USNVC association, a park-specific map class name representing a variant of an association, or an Anderson Level II use/land cover map class based on plot data, field observations, aerial photography signatures, and topographic maps. Map units in the 2005 vegetation map were equivalent to the association level with few exceptions. The overall 2005 map accuracy and Kappa index was 76%, which fell below the USGS/NPS vegetation mapping protocol requirement of 80%. Revisions were subsequently made to the 2005 vegetation map to increase the accuracy of the final product. The final 2007 vegetation map accuracy was 85.7% and Kappa index was 84.6%.

The files linked to this reference are the geospatial data created as part of the completion of the baseline vegetation inventory project for the NPS park unit. Current format is ArcGIS file geodatabase but older formats may exist as shapefiles. Following development of vegetation classifications after plot sampling, the preliminary vegetation map was further edited and refined in 2005. Using ArcGIS 9.0, polygon boundaries were revised on-screen based on plot data and additional field observations collected during 2004 field visits. Field notes and limited field mapping supplemented GIS mapping. Each polygon was attributed with a map class name that is the common name of a USNVC association, a park-specific map class name representing a variant of an association, or an Anderson Level II use/land cover map class based on plot data, field observations, aerial photography signatures, and topographic maps. Map units in the 2005 vegetation map were equivalent to the association level with few exceptions. The overall 2005 map accuracy and Kappa index was 76%, which fell below the USGS/NPS vegetation mapping protocol requirement of 80%. Revisions were subsequently made to the 2005 vegetation map to increase the accuracy of the final product. The final 2007 vegetation map accuracy was 85.7% and Kappa index was 84.6%.

"Vegetation coverage derived for the NSW Component of the Riverina Bioregion (IBRA). Data layer was prepared as part of the project ""A Foundation for Conservation in the Riverina Bioregion"" by K. A. Eardley (NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, 1999).; NOTE: This map has a smaller coverage than ID 984.; ; Riverina Bioregion Vegetation Map (NSW component) covers the following 1:250 000 map sheets: POONCARIE, BALRANALD, SWAN HILL, BOOLIGAL, HAY, DENILIQUIN, IVANHOE, CARGELLIGO, NARRANDERA and JERILDERIE.; ; The vegetation coverage for the Riverina was derived from a number of map sources, mainly the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney (Porteners, 1993) Hay Plain: Booligal-Hay and Deniliquin-Bendigo 1:250 000 maps; (Porteners et. Al., 1997) Pooncarie 1:250,000 map; (Scott, 1992) Balranald - Swan Hill 1:250,000 maps; and NPWS extension mapping from Landsat imagery for the northern periphery and eastern portion of the Bioregion within NSW. ; ; This map was derived from mapping prepared by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney and therefore, the original publications should be reviewed. The mapis reliable for information regarding woody vegetation but limited in its capacity to describe Grasslands. The extension mapping is very broad due to the rapidity with which it was undertaken and the constraints associated with visual interpretation of satellite imagery and the lack of field survey. The main limitation to the extension mapping is the grouping of all Grasslands into one category. The constraint with using satellite imagery meant that native grasslands could not be accurately distinguished from improved pasture. Therefore, the 'Grassland' vegetation type includes the continuum from relatively undisturbed native grassland to improved pasture with few native species; similarly, Boree Woodland (Acacia pendula) with scattered individuals, is also classified as Grassland.; ; Vegetation types were derived by omitting structural detail and grouping common floristic categories. This was a pragmatic decision to provide consistency between the various maps and to enable comparison at the coarse level without losing floristic detail. Nevertheless, it is acknowledged that the removal of the structural and species dominance information reduces the usefulness of the mapping for predicting species and habitat distribution. For example, it could not be used to predict Plains Wanderer habitat because this species is reliant upon vegetation structure as well as floristic composition."; ; VIS_ID983