Cooper Eromanga Basin Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems (unconfined aquifer) - Priority Vegetation and Waterholes

Created: 19 Nov 2024 Revised: 31 Mar 2025

Groundwater-dependent ecosystems (GDE) have been identified using Landsat satellite vegetation and water cover datasets. Seasonal fractional cover data (i.e. summer, autumn, winter, spring) quarterly data was collated for the period 2008 to 2017. The mean, minimum and maximum green vegetation (i.e. photosynthetically-active) cover values for each 30m grid cell was calculated over 2008 to 2017 period to provide indicators of vegetation water use during typical, drought and good seasonal conditions.

Green vegetation cover data has been used to identify where plant growth responses (i.e. transpiration through photosynthetically-active vegetation) indicate the provision of water beyond local rainfall. Additional water supplies for plant growth can be the result of surface water redistribution patterns (e.g. runon-runoff, drainage lines), local storage features (e.g. soils, gravel beds), sub-surface flows (e.g. seepages, perched water tables) or groundwater (e.g. unconfined or confined aquifers).

The minimum green vegetation cover value during drought conditions (i.e. 5% or greater) has been used to locate terrestrial groundwater-dependent ecosystems (GDEs) with the strongest reliance on shallow unconfined aquifers or large subsurface moisture stores. Higher levels of greenness during dry conditions are indicators of more productive ecosystems during droughts. More persistent wetlands (>50% of time) have been mapped using Water Observations from Space (WOfS) 1987-2015 data.

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About this record

Record No	mesac945
Topic	Environment
Type of Resource	Dataset
Category Type	Artificial Intelligence And Image Processing Earth Sciences Environmental Sciences Geochemistry Geology Geophysics Image Processing Information And Computing Sciences Natural Resource Management Physical Geography Surface Processes Surfacewater Hydrology
Document Type
Contributor
Sponsor
Tenement
Tenement Holder
Operator
Geological Province
Other
Mine Name
Stratigraphy
Commodity
Notes
Language	English
Metadata Standard	ISO 19115-3

Citations

Use constraints	License
License	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
Persistent identifier	https://pid.sarig.sa.gov.au/dataset/mesac945
Citation	Cooper Eromanga Basin Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems (unconfined aquifer) - Priority Vegetation and Waterholes https://pid.sarig.sa.gov.au/dataset/mesac945

Technical information

Status	Completed
Maintenance and Update Frequency
Geographic Reference	GDA2020 (EPSG:7844)
Geo bounding box	{"type":"Polygon","coordinates":[[[141.1,-25.9],[138.9,-25.9],[138.9,-29.6],[141.1,-29.6],[141.1,-25.9]]]}
Purpose	This data is designed to enable desktop-based assessments of the potential environmental impact of activities that can influence the quantity, quality or chemistry of water supplies within unconfined aquifers, local storage features (e.g. soils,... This data is designed to enable desktop-based assessments of the potential environmental impact of activities that can influence the quantity, quality or chemistry of water supplies within unconfined aquifers, local storage features (e.g. soils, gravel beds), and sub-surface flows (eg. seepages, perched water tables). More +
Lineage	Based on methodology described by Hobbs TJ, Wenham D, Herrmann T, Brandle R, Maconochie J, Baird G, Schutz A, Howell S, Spencer J, Owen J, Fitzgerald L, Bowen Z & Wood H (2018). Environmental values in the Cooper-Eromanga Basin, DEW Technical... Based on methodology described by Hobbs TJ, Wenham D, Herrmann T, Brandle R, Maconochie J, Baird G, Schutz A, Howell S, Spencer J, Owen J, Fitzgerald L, Bowen Z & Wood H (2018). Environmental values in the Cooper-Eromanga Basin, DEW Technical report 2018/04, Government of South Australia, Department for Environment and Water & Department for Energy and Mining, Adelaide. Data sources:Landsat satellite imagery (1987-2017). Positional accuracy:0.000278 degrees Attribute accuracy:High. Reliant on the accuracy of Landsat Fractional Cover Index data (2008-2017) and Landsat Water Observations from Space data (1987-2015). Logical consistency:Mis-classifications of green vegetation cover resulting from high Landsat red band reflectances (e.g. bright red sand dunes) have been removed. Some groundwater dependent ecosystems with lower green vegetation responses have not been identified by this method. More +

Attribute details

Name	Definition
Priority	Highest priority class from vegetation greenness during driest season of 2008-2017 period or persistence of surface water during the 1987-2015 period (1=Very high; 2=High; 3=Moderate; 4=Lower)
Dominant Surface	Dominant land surface type [Land; Water]
Water Use	Highest level of ecosystem water use by vegetation or waterbody (Very high; High; Moderate; Lower)
Water Use Vegetation	Level of ecosystem water use during driest season of 2008-2017 period
Priority Vegetation	Priority class from vegetation greenness during driest season of the 2008-2017 period (1=Very high; 2=High; 3=Moderate; 4=Lower)
PV Minimum Class	Minimum level of photosynthetically-active (i.e. green) vegetation cover during driest season of the 2008-2017 period (% cover)
Modified	Ecosystem wateruse significantly modified by human activities (e.g. wastewater flows
WOFS WH ID	Feature identifier for persistent waterbodies mapped from satellite data (i.e. Water Observations from Space
Hectares	Feature area (hectares])