QUALITY DECLARATION - SUMMARY

INSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENT

For information on the institutional environment of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), including the legislative obligations of the ABS, financing and governance arrangements, and mechanisms for scrutiny of ABS operations, please see ABS Institutional Environment.

The publication has been compiled from administrative by-product information and satellite imagery. The key sources of data used in this publication are the Land Valuations file (also referred to as Valuer-General's (VG) data) from State of Queensland (Department of Natural Resources and Mines) and Geoscience Australia's Dynamic Land Cover Dataset (DLCD) v2.1.


RELEVANCE

Land Account: Queensland, Experimental Estimates was developed following templates in the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) - SEEA Central Framework 2012. SEEA was first published by the United Nations (UN) in 1993 and elevated to an international standard in 2012. This publication presents data on land use and land cover in both physical and monetary terms. The publication contains a range of statistical accounting tables that allow analysts to better understand land use and cover patterns and changes in Queensland. Broadly it includes:

• Monetary accounts for land use;
• Physical accounts for land use;
• Land use net change matrices;
• Land use net change matrices;
• Physical accounts for land cover; and
• Land cover net change matrices.

The aim of the Queensland Land Account is to integrate data from different sources into a consolidated information set making it possible to link physical data on land to economic data, such as that in Australia's National Accounts. Environmental accounts can facilitate analyses of a range of issues including a broader assessment of the consequences of economic growth and implications of environmental policy measures across sectors (for example, regulation, charges and incentives).

The Queensland Land Account differs from the recommendations in the SEEA Central Framework 2012 in certain cases where the data is not available to meet these requirements, or it is not considered practical to adhere to the standards.


TIMELINESS

The two datasets used to produce the estimates presented in this publication are Land Valuations, from the State of Queensland, and Geoscience Australia's DLCD v2.1 product.

The Queensland Land Valuations data represents land use and unimproved land value as at 30 June 2011 and 30 June 2016, while valuations have been weighted to the corresponding years in Australian System of National Accounts, 2015-16 (cat. no. 5204.0). The ABS has used DLCD based on Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data from January 2010 to December 2011 and January 2014 to December 2015.

Users should note the discrepancy between the Land Valuations and DLCD reference periods.


ACCURACY

Estimates presented are experimental, as land accounting methodology is still in a somewhat developmental phase. As such, the estimates should be used with caution. Input data for the Queensland Land Account were acquired from several different sources, including State of Queensland and Geoscience Australia's Dynamic Land Cover Dataset (DLCD) V2.1 product. The ABS has had limited influence on the compilation process for the source data.

In the development of the Queensland Land Account data cubes the ABS has identified issues with the coverage, completeness and accuracy of the administrative data sets used (see Explanatory Notes for more information). It is expected that these issues will be addressed as the methods and underlying datasets mature.


COHERENCE

Due to methodological changes, data in the Land Account: Queensland, Experimental Estimates should not be compared to previous ABS Land Account publications. This includes changes in source data, data compilation and data classifications.

The following classifications were used in this publication - the allocation of land uses to the AVPCC is not completely coherent with previous ABS Land Accounts editions:

• Australian Valuation Property Classification Codes (AVPCC) 2016;
• International Standards Organisation Land Cover Classification (ISO 19144-2); and
• Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS).

The Australian System of National Accounts (ASNA) publishes total land value for the State of Queensland for 'Residential', 'Commercial' and 'Rural' land use types. Tables 1 and 3 in this publication present data consistent with Australian System of National Accounts, 2015-16 (cat. no. 5204.0) as at 30 June 2011 and 30 June 2016. See section 39 to 42 in the Explanatory Notes for more information.

While care has been taken to ensure consistency between the land use data (as at 30 June 2011 and 30 June 2016) and land cover data (2010-2011 to 2014-2015), the changes between the reference periods need to be interpreted with some caution owning to differences and quality in the source data.


INTERPRETABILITY

There are eleven sections of Explanatory Notes in this publication, which cover:

• Environmental accounting framework;
• Relationship between ABS Land Accounts and the Australian System of National Accounts;
• Data cubes;
• Coverage and geography;
• Interpreting the land accounts;
• Source data;
• Data currency;
• Data quality;
• Methods;
• Confidentiality;
• Classifications; and
• Related publications.

Users should note that the land use data in this publication is representative of a primary land use for a property. Changes, for example, from ‘Forestry – Commercial Timber Production’ to ‘Livestock Grazing’ does not necessarily indicate a decline in forestry, but could indicate a reclassification of the primary use of a property.

The ABS has included a glossary of terms to aid understanding because definitions relating to land are not often consistent between jurisdictions. Detailed explanatory notes are provided with each edition to assist users in interpreting and understanding the concepts underlying the data.


ACCESSIBILITY

Data are available to users free of charge from the ABS website, including data cubes in spreadsheet format and commentary on the key findings. The data contained in this publication comprise the full detail compiled for the Land Account: Queensland, Experimental Estimates, 2011-2016 and as such it is not possible to provide any further information beyond what is presented in the publication. For more detail on the publication please contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.

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