Who is the report targeted at?
All users of vegetation data will benefit from this project as it will simplify their search requirements.

University students, industry groups with interests in private native forests, environmental planners, scientists and vegetation practitioners are just a few of these. The project is targeted at those individuals and groups interested in native forest operations on private lands, but it will also assist any users of vegetation data.

Background
Regional natural resource management groups, planners and forest managers use maps and other vegetation information to understand and manage forest resources for a range of purposes. Such vegetation information is prepared by a range of organisations, often with varying vegetation measures and descriptors. Metadata statements describing these data are key to searching for available maps and data. A vegetation metadata statement is a brief description or summary of the vegetation data and maps that can be accessed at a particular source. This summary information should be provided for all data sets, but is generally not presented consistently between regions or agencies, making it hard to search.

There is a need to collate vegetation metadata into a single publication for private lands in NSW, to improve access. This has not previously been done, despite the fact that several data audits have been undertaken previously. Also, previous audits have not identified all relevant data sets because they have missed those where the categorisation or name of the data set prevents ready recognition of its individual components. For example, some data sets held by the NSW Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources are referred to as multiple attribute data sets. These may provide information on slope, terrain, land use, land degradation, vegetation, soils and site limitations features.

There has also been no previous attempt to collect all the data in a single archive and to make it available to the public via the web.

Aims/Objectives
The aims of this project were to:

• identify relevant native vegetation data sets over freehold lands;
• retrieve these spatial data sets and metadata statements and store them within a dedicated archive;
• where the vegetation data are part of a multiple attribute data set, separate the appropriate vegetation layers, store within the established archive and prepare metadata statements.

As a result of reviewing and compiling the metadata, the project also recommended key fields to include in metadata statements, to improve consistency and assist future searches.

Methods used
A review of previous NSW vegetation data audits was conducted, followed by collation of current and previous vegetation data audits. Various key groups were then contacted, including government agencies, local government and community groups, and asked to supply information regarding their current NSW vegetation data sets. All data sets were then evaluated, described and amalgamated into a master list. Emphasis was given to the most current and useful data sets on private land for private native forestry purposes, to assist in identifying the location of commercial timber species. Data sets were reviewed up to August 2005.

Results/Key findings
All relevant native vegetation data sets over freehold lands, including some projects that are still in the process of being completed, were identified. This list of current available vegetation data sets on freehold land is given in Appendix 1. Fifty-five data sets are listed, and described using 13 data fields.

The mapped regions span much of NSW, at various scales. The NSW data are available via the NSW Natural Resources Atlas website (http://www.nratlas.nsw.gov.au). More detailed data will be provided by NSW Department of Natural Resources (DNR) via the Community Access to Natural Resources Information (CANRI) website.

Various problems have been identified with metadata statements during this project. The main issues are insufficient documentation of the data set involved; not placing the metadata on the NSW Natural Resources Data Directory (NRDD) website; and multiple metadata statements for the same data set (ie. mainly because it was a joint project with two custodians or because one agency captures the data electronically from another agency and treats it as its own data set).

Metadata statements were inconsistent, sometimes unclear, and varied in the information they provided. Therefore, this project has recommended the key data that it is desirable to include in metadata statements.

Implications for relevant stakeholders
A listing of vegetation mapping data sets is now available through this report and the CANRI website.

A substantial number of new vegetation data sets have been identified through this project.

This will assist regional catchment management groups, and natural resource managers to utilise existing information more efficiently, and minimise duplication of mapping and survey effort.

Recommendations It is recommended that:

• data custodians give more emphasis to completion of detailed metadata statements for their data products.
• if these data sets are produced via external funding that the requirements for metadata statement become attached to the funding.
• when data sets are described, a standard metadata title should be used when discussing data sets in a report.

The following recommendations are targeted at data custodians, funding agencies and policy makers.

Metadata statements should include the following:

• the level of vegetation classification, type of attributes and how many are used the date of the source information used
• the 1:100 000 map sheet coverage of the study area
• the smallest polygon size eg. remnants > 5ha were mapped or remnants > 20% canopy cover  were mapped
• known limitations ie. not reliable on private land because of lack of sampling on this tenure
• comments regarding more up-to-date data or versions (essential in previous product metadata statements)
• contact details of metadata statements are diligently reviewed and updated.

Metadata (statements) as described here are dataset descriptions that comply with ANZLIC Core Metadata Guidelines Version 2 (February 2001).