Democratising Datasets: Mapping Land Use In Queensland
Craig Shepherd

The availability of consistent and reliable spatial information presenting land use is critical for sustainable natural resource management by Australian, Queensland and local governments, natural resource management groups, industry and community groups and land managers.

To map land use state-wide, the Queensland Government has implemented an innovative mapping system for technical and non-technical users. A suite of Esri™ products are used to gather, check and publish data via desktop, field and mobile devices. The system could be applied to any large-area mapping program. Land use and land use change maps are a fundamental dataset for natural resource management and monitoring, natural disaster recovery and biosecurity response.

Bio: Craig Shephard is the Principal Scientist in the Queensland Land use Mapping Program, within the Department of Environment and Science, Queensland Government. He has some 20 years professional experience in the mapping of landscape attributes, particularly land cover and land use in Queensland, Australia. Prior to that spent two years mapping crime in London, UK. Craig is particularly focussed on the application of Geographic Information Systems to natural resource management.