Vegetation Survey of Groote Eylandt, 2018. Version 2

Index:

Metadata
Citation
Description

Dataset Status
Data Quality
Contact Information
Data Dictionary
Supplementary Information

Metadata Details:

Name:AS/NZS ISO 19115 Geographic Information - Metadata, ANZLIC Metadata Profile

Version:1.0

Date Metadata Extracted:2025-04-04

Date Metadata Last Updated:2025-03-20

Current URL (HTML format) : http://www.ntlis.nt.gov.au/metadata/export_data?type=html&metadata_id=301E6072922878EAE0632144CD9B67F5

Current URL (XML format) : http://www.ntlis.nt.gov.au/metadata/export_data?type=xml&metadata_id=301E6072922878EAE0632144CD9B67F5

Citation

ANZLIC Identifier:301E6072922878EAE0632144CD9B67F5

Title: Vegetation Survey of Groote Eylandt, 2018. Version 2

Citation Date:2025-03-18

Date Type:creation

Custodian:Department of Environment, Parks and Water Security

Description

Abstract:

This spatial dataset provides polygon information delineating vegetation community boundaries at a scale of approximately 1:50 000 and covers Groote Eylandt and other islands in the Groote archipelago, including Bickerton and Winchelsea. The study area covers approximately 261 025 ha, excluding 718 089 ha mapped as ocean, and is within the Groote subregion of the Arnhem Coastal Bioregion. The majority of vegetation sites were surveyed in 2018. Version 1 was published in 2021. Version 2 (this version) incorporates additional field data collected by the Department of Lands, Planning and Environment and GEMCO between 2018 and 2024. Polygon boundaries have been revised and updated to reflect additional data.

The primary purpose of the project was to produce vegetation and habitat mapping for Groote Eylandt and other islands in the Groote archipelago, at an appropriate scale for the management of environmental assets within the Anindilyakwa Indigenous Protected Area. The dataset describes vegetation communities at four levels in accordance the NT National Vegetation Information System mapping (NRETAS, 2007), including Class, Structural Formation, Broad Structural Formation and Sub-Formation.

CAUTION: Polygon boundaries were derived using Sentinel-2 satellite image data (2018 annual composite, 10m spatial resolution). When assessing specific areas within the mapping it is recommended a site inspection is undertaken to establish unmapped variation and confirm mapping accuracy on the ground. Although field information has been incorporated into the development of this data, the final dataset has not been validated. Users are advised that attribute accuracy varies over the study area.

ANZLIC Search Words:

biota

environment

Spatial Domain:

Bounding Coordinates:

North Bounding Coordinate:-13.50038

South Bounding Coordinate:-14.50097

East Bounding Coordinate:137.00052

West Bounding Coordinate:136.04936

Dataset Status

Dataset ID:

Language:English

Character Set: Latin 1

Progress:completed

Maintenance and Update Frequency:notPlanned

Data Currency Start Date:2025-03-18

Data Currency End Date:

Access Constraint:Download the spatial data package (contains spatial data, maps and reports) via data.nt.gov.au/

You are licensed to use the DLPE geospatial products on the terms and conditions set out in: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC BY 4.0) at: creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode
If you do not agree to the terms and conditions you must not use the geospatial products.
You are free to copy, communicate and adapt the licensed material, provided that you abide by the licence terms (including Attribution) and attribute the licensed material using the statement:

Supplied by the Department of Lands, Planning and Environment. Copyright Northern Territory Government.

Data Quality

Lineage:Vegetation community groups were derived from a statistical analysis of field data, based on structural, floristic characteristics and landscape position. Some groups were combined and broadened where remotely sensed data could not easily distinguish between them.

Vegetation communities were mapped using an object-based image analysis approach. A range of satellite image data and derived products and indices were used to delineate and classify vegetation community polygons, based primarily on Landsat (February 2016), Sentinel-2 (September 2016), Digital Elevation Model (May 2010) and Radiometric (2015) data. All data were processed to a consistent coordinate system (GDA94), pixel size (10 m) and footprint.

Image objects were generated using a multiresolution segmentation with a scale parameter of 10. Image objects were classified using a Random Trees model trained using field data, applying contextual rules (e.g. proximity to drainage lines), and undertaking some manual editing to increase classification accuracy. Classified image objects were converted to ESRI shapefile format (.shp) for further processing, including smoothing to eliminate pixelated polygon outlines. Spatial processing was undertaken using Trimble eCognition Developer 9.2 and ArcGIS 10.

Version 1: published 8th December 2021. Custodian - Flora and Fauna Division.
Version 2: published 18th March 2025. Custodian - Rangelands Division.

Spatial data formats are ESRI file geodatabase and shapefiles. Data is stored in datum GDA94, geographics.

Positional Accuracy:POLYGON DATA - Polygon boundaries were generated from rectified Sentinel-2 image data provided by QDES with a geometric accuracy of less than 12.5 m (ESA, 2015). This level of accuracy is generally considered high to very high.

Attribute Accuracy:Attribute values, as described in the Data Dictionary below, have been added to each polygon. Structural classification follows the NVIS classification (NVIS Technical Working Group 2017). Descriptions include detailed structural and floristic characteristics, and associated landform and soils where applicable. Site data is generally compliant with:
Hnatiuk RJ, Thackway R and Walker J 2009, 'Vegetation': in National Committee on Soil and Terrain (NCST). Australian Soil and Land Survey Field Handbook. Third Edition. Australian Soil and Land Survey Handbook Series, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne.
Brocklehurst P, Lewis D, Napier D and Lynch D 2007, Northern Territory Guidelines and Field Methodology for Vegetation Survey and Mapping. Technical Report No. 02/2007D. Department of Natural Resources, Environment and the Arts, Northern Territory Government, Darwin.
And:
NVIS Technical Working Group (2017) Australian Vegetation Attribute Manual: National Vegetation Information System, Version 7.0. Department of the Environment and Energy, Canberra. Prep by Bolton MP, deLacey C and Bossard KB (Eds).

Logical Consistency:GIS editing tools were used to rectify all overshoots and undershoots in line work. Polygon topology rules applied are; must not overlap and must not have gaps.

Completeness:COMPLETE

Contacts

Name Organisation Position Role Phone Fax Email

Data Requests Officer Department of Environment, Parks and Water Security Geospatial Services Branch (on behalf of department) distributor datarequests.depws@nt.gov.au

Name	Organisation	Position	Role	Phone	Fax	Email
Data Requests Officer	Department of Environment, Parks and Water Security	Geospatial Services Branch (on behalf of department)	distributor			datarequests.depws@nt.gov.au

Data Dictionary

Attribute Attribute Description Possible Code Code Description

AREA_HA Alias: Area (ha)

COM_DESC Alias: Community Description
A general or common description for the map-unit.

L1_CLASS Alias: Level 1 - Class
Derived from the NVIS Information Hierarchy. The description of class includes the growth form from the ecologically dominant stratum of the vegetation type/community.

L2_STR_FOR Alias: Level 2 - Structural Formation
Derived from the NVIS Information Hierarchy. The description of structural formation should include dominant growth form, cover classes, height classes and height classifier with corresponding growth form for the ecologically dominant stratum of the vegetation type/community.

L3_BR_FOR Alias: Level 3 - Broad Floristic Formation
Derived from the NVIS Information Hierarchy.
The description of the vegetation type/community with floristic information at the level of genus, plus the structural formation of the dominant stratum reported at the sub-formation level (Level 4)
of the NVIS Information Hierarchy.

L4_SUB_FOR Alias: Level 4 - Sub-formation
Derived from the NVIS Information Hierarchy. For each stratum (Upper, Mid and Ground), the sub-formation description of the vegetation type should include floristic information (genus) plus the structural formation (dominant growth form, cover, height are implied).
A maximum of three strata is allowed and the dominant stratum is indicated by a plus symbol +.

NVISVEG_ID Alias: NVIS vegetation identifier

NVIS_DATA Alias: NVIS data
This dataset has not been included in the NVIS dataset.

SPA_MIX Alias: Spatial Mix
This provides general information on both the spatial extent and makeup of the discrete sub-associations or floristic groups within the one map unit. Map units may be homogenous (pure) or mixed (mosaics). Spatially mixed map units are defined as those that have a number of discrete vegetation types within a map unit boundary. Mosaic The map unit definitely has two or three main sub-associations, which can be described in detail, the spatial extent of each within the polygon is known, and one of the sub-associations is clearly spatially dominant.

Pure The map unit has only one sub-association or discrete floristic group, and this can be adequately described.

SURVEY_ID Alias: Survey Identifier
A department code that usually refers to the first five characters from the original survey site sheet.
GROOT18_50_V2 (Location_Year_Scale_Version)

SURVEY_NME Alias: Survey Name
The name of the survey area or report to which the mapping refers.

VERSION Alias: Data version
Version 1 was published 8 December 2021.
Version 2 was published 18 March 2025

Attribute	Attribute Description	Possible Code	Code Description
AREA_HA	Alias: Area (ha)
COM_DESC	Alias: Community Description A general or common description for the map-unit.
L1_CLASS	Alias: Level 1 - Class Derived from the NVIS Information Hierarchy. The description of class includes the growth form from the ecologically dominant stratum of the vegetation type/community.
L2_STR_FOR	Alias: Level 2 - Structural Formation Derived from the NVIS Information Hierarchy. The description of structural formation should include dominant growth form, cover classes, height classes and height classifier with corresponding growth form for the ecologically dominant stratum of the vegetation type/community.
L3_BR_FOR	Alias: Level 3 - Broad Floristic Formation Derived from the NVIS Information Hierarchy. The description of the vegetation type/community with floristic information at the level of genus, plus the structural formation of the dominant stratum reported at the sub-formation level (Level 4) of the NVIS Information Hierarchy.
L4_SUB_FOR	Alias: Level 4 - Sub-formation Derived from the NVIS Information Hierarchy. For each stratum (Upper, Mid and Ground), the sub-formation description of the vegetation type should include floristic information (genus) plus the structural formation (dominant growth form, cover, height are implied). A maximum of three strata is allowed and the dominant stratum is indicated by a plus symbol +.
NVISVEG_ID	Alias: NVIS vegetation identifier
NVIS_DATA	Alias: NVIS data This dataset has not been included in the NVIS dataset.
SPA_MIX	Alias: Spatial Mix This provides general information on both the spatial extent and makeup of the discrete sub-associations or floristic groups within the one map unit. Map units may be homogenous (pure) or mixed (mosaics). Spatially mixed map units are defined as those that have a number of discrete vegetation types within a map unit boundary.	Mosaic	The map unit definitely has two or three main sub-associations, which can be described in detail, the spatial extent of each within the polygon is known, and one of the sub-associations is clearly spatially dominant.
		Pure	The map unit has only one sub-association or discrete floristic group, and this can be adequately described.
SURVEY_ID	Alias: Survey Identifier A department code that usually refers to the first five characters from the original survey site sheet. GROOT18_50_V2 (Location_Year_Scale_Version)
SURVEY_NME	Alias: Survey Name The name of the survey area or report to which the mapping refers.
VERSION	Alias: Data version Version 1 was published 8 December 2021. Version 2 was published 18 March 2025

Supplementary Information

Department Survey Code (Land Units): GROOT18_50_V2
This spatial dataset should not be used at scales greater than 1 : 50,000
BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCE
--------------------------------------------
Cuff, N and Petursson J (2025).
Vegetation Survey of Groote Eylandt 2018, Version 2
Vegetation Mapping Unit Descriptions
Technical Report 15/2025
Department of Lands, Planning and Environment
Northern Territory Government, Darwin, NT
Download the report (PDF) via the Northern Territory Library; hdl.handle.net/10070/991568
Download map products created for this survey; ftp-dlrm.nt.gov.au/main.html?download&weblink=2d15e069ab85f8ae912ec975ea766990&realfilename=VegResources_groot18_50_v2.zip

ASSOCIATED INFORMATION:
-----------------------------------------
Sentinel-2 User Handbook. ESA Standard Document, 24/07/2015 Issue 1 Rev 2
ESCAVI (2003) Australian vegetation attribute manual: National Vegetation Information System, Version 6.0. Executive Steering Committee for Australian Vegetation Information. Department of the Environment and Heritage, Canberra.
Lewis, D., Brocklehurst, B. & Napier, D. (2007). Technical Specifications for Vegetation Map Unit Core Attributes. Technical Report No. 15/2007D. Department of Natural Resources Environment and the Arts, Palmerston, Northern Territory.
Download report: hdl.handle.net/10070/228504
National Vegetation Information System (NVIS)
www.environment.gov.au/land/publications/australian-vegetation-attribute-manual-version-7
Northern Territory Vegetation Site Database (VSD)
Metadata - www.ntlis.nt.gov.au/metadata/export_data?type=html&metadata_id=106CB8F612C2E339E050CD9B214430AB

This record maintained using the NTLIS Metadata Tool

Metadata : Vegetation Survey of Groote Eylandt, 2018. Version 2