Themes

Title	Purpose	Datasets in Theme
Administrative Boundaries	Administrative Boundaries gives administrative areas that show voting districts, redistributions, zoning, socio-economic analysis, regional planning, service distribution and local and state government boundaries. Also, Administrative Boundaries can be used to combine information for problem-solving and geographically stable boundaries (over time) can be used to study changes over time. Administrative boundary data together with address data, government population and business information Makes it possible to find solutions to difficult problems.	Australian Statistical Geographical Standard Boundaries, Jurisdictional Boundaries, Australian Electoral Boundaries, Maritime Jurisdiction Boundaries, Native Title Boundaries
Buildings and Settlements	Coming Soon
Elevation and Depth	Elevation and Depth gives trusted Earth’s surface information to help with finding solutions to difficult problems. It is an important layer when combined with other foundation datasets. Elevation and Depth information is collected using different sensors; including laser, sound navigation and ranging (sonar), radio detection and ranging (radar), optical remote sensing and survey techniques to derive spot heights, raster surfaces, contours and digital models of terrain. Elevation and Depth is central to : Safe hydrographic, aeronautical and road navigation. Climate Science, including Climate Change Adaptation. Emergency management and natural hazard risk assessment. Environmental, including water management. Engineering projects and infrastructure development. Definition of maritime and administrative boundaries. Defence and national security. Natural resource exploration and exploitation. Elevation and Depth provides an authoritative digital representation of the Earth’s surface enabling evidence-based decision making, policy development and an essential reference to other foundation datasets. Elevation and Depth underpins: Safe hydrographic, aeronautical and road navigation. Climate Science, including Climate Change Adaptation. Emergency management and natural hazard risk assessment. Environmental, including water management. Engineering projects and infrastructure development. Definition of maritime and administrative boundaries. Defence and national security. Natural resource exploration and exploitation.	National Digital Elevation and Depth Model
Geocoded Addressing	Geocoded addressing is used to identify a plot of land, a building or part of a building, or some other construction. Addressing data gives the unique and unquestionable identification of an address’ location. Addressing is used for: Communication Address validation at point of entry Socio-economic and demographic analysis Emergency services and public safety Delivery of products and services Personal navigation Fraud prevention Voter Registration Innovation in business	The Geocoded National Address File
Geology and Soils	Coming Soon
Imagery	Imagery gives an analytical source and background layer for decision making in many areas including : Mapping; topographic features, bathymetry, feature extraction for other fundamental datasets Emergency Services; Monitoring active and/or recent fires, flood and storm events Natural resource management; Biomass, native vegetation and agriculture, managing conservation areas Geosciences; Geoscience resources, Sustainable human and land use development; auditing urban development	Low Resolution (>80m) High Temporal Coverage (>weekly), Medium Resolution (>10-80m) Medium Temporal, High Spatial Resolution (>2.5-10m) Low Temporal Coverage (>Quarterly), Very High Resolution (<2.5 m) Very Low Temporal Coverage (>annual)
Land Cover and Land Use	Land cover and land use theme give a nationally consistent series of land cover/use information to help decision making by business and government. Nationally consistent land cover/use data also gives key inputs for the academic and research communities.	Dynamic Land Cover, Fractional Ground Cover, National Topographic Data, Forests of Australia, Australian Collaborative Land Use and Management Program, National Vegetation Information System
Land Parcel and Property	Land and property information is central to many of the economic, social and environmental structure of Australia and is used most often to: Display extent of allowable use of land Provides a link between mapping and land titles making land management easier and more reliable Provides spatial representation of land ownership types for cadastral parcels Manage Title and Tenure, Nature Conservation, Heritage Protection, Defence, and Disaster Management Improve infrastructure and property development planning Inform water and carbon accounting programs.	Land Parcel Boundaries, Land Tenure
Physical Infrastructure	Coming Soon
Place Names	Place Names are used to consistently describe and record the official and/or commonly-used names for the location of places and features and gazetted or historical information connected with those names. Place Names are central to: Emergency response Economic, social and environmental analysis Cultural identity and heritage Mapping and navigation Providing a link / index function to other spatial and aspatial data	Gazetteer of Australia
Population Distribution	Coming Soon
Positioning	Positioning is Australia's authoritative, reliable, high accuracy location network and it gives a common reference for all location information. The Network is used by both specialists and non-specialists, for a growing number of applications. For example: surveying construction mining precision agriculture asset capture tracking navigation emergency response law enforcement insurance security climate/weather forecast, and recreation	National Geospatial Reference System
Transport	Transport datasets are managed separately within each state and Territory in Australia. This data is critical for providing logistic support for all aspects of road transportation. Transportation data is used by states and territory governments and private sector companies which value add to the data for their specific purpose. This value-add may be added back into the datasets f deemed suitable. Different levels of government also hold different levels of data and it is related intimately with cadastre data. There is an inconsistency between datasets at state borders due to different classification systems used.	Roads, National Crossings, Railways and Railway Stations, Traffic Control Devices, Airports and Airfields, Navigation Aids and Obstacles
Water	Water security is one of Australia’s major challenges. The benefits of using these national Water datasets are to better understand the water system and help make the right decision. An important part of the Water theme is understanding the contained features; the catchments, streams, aquifers, floodplains and storages that make up the hydrological system. In developing and delivering water resource information the location of these features is as vital as the information about the interactions between the features. Water information helps the government with issues such as: Climate change Water and natural resource management, including coal seam gas extraction Flood mapping Emergency management Hazard mitigation or disaster risk reduction Environmental planning and monitoring Urban development and agriculture Insurance, engineering and mining	Surface Hydrology, Catchment Boundaries, Hydrological Obstructions, Flow Direction Grid, Groundwater, Groundwater Bores, Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems (GDE)