Wetlands Australia National Wetlands Update February 2013
Issue No. 22, February 2013
ISSN 1446-4843
Queensland Government Update
Queensland Wetlands Program
The Queensland Wetlands Program (the Program) is a joint initiative of the Australian and Queensland governments that supports projects that will result in long-term benefits to the wise use, management, conservation and protection of wetlands in Queensland.
The Program has supported more than 70 projects since its inception in 2003 to deliver a range of new mapping, information and decision-making tools. Major milestones and groundbreaking initiatives have been delivered throughout 2012.
The mapping of Queensland's wetlands to 2009 is a key output of the Program. It integrates satellite imagery, regional ecosystems and topographic data, and new ways of using mapping classification. It is based on an innovative mapping and classification methodology (link to be provided) developed by the Program and is useful for State of the Environment reporting.
WetlandInfo will soon contain groundwater dependent ecosystem (GDE) mapping datasets for the eastern Murray-Darling Basin and Wide Bay-Burnett, pictorial conceptual models, FAQs and a glossary of terms relating to the Queensland GDE Mapping Project.
The Queensland Government and the National Water Commission funded this initiative as part of a project to further develop the National Atlas of GDEs.
'Walking the landscape' is a new groundbreaking whole-of-system framework for understanding and mapping environmental processes and values developed by the Program in collaboration with other Queensland Government departments and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. It is a systematic and transparent science synthesis framework which integrates existing data with expert knowledge through hands-on workshops to create a common understanding among multidisciplinary experts.
A new framework for evaluating aquatic ecosystem connectivity was developed through expert workshops involving policy makers and scientists from a wide range of disciplines from state, local and federal government bodies and universities. It provides a way of understanding and applying connectivity at between and within aquatic ecosystems at any level of spatial scale to inform management decision-making.
The Program has also developed a guide to pictorial conceptual modelling to support wetland ecosystem science and management in Queensland, a wetland buffer case study for Lake Broadwater as well as guidelines and a template for preparing wetland management plans for primary producers (grazing, dryland cropping) in Queensland's inland catchments. These guides are applicable to Australia generally, not just to Queensland.
