National Land Cover Account

Latest release

Experimental statistics on detailed land cover stock positions and changes in land cover from 1988 to 2020.

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Reference period
2020
Released
22/06/2022
Next release Unknown
First release

Key statistics

  • Perennial water at lowest level in 2019 (0.2% of total land). 
  • Natural surfaces at highest level in 2019 (43.7% of total land) followed by natural terrestrial herbaceous vegetation (40.4% of total land).
  • Cultivated herbaceous vegetation peaked in 1992 (106.9 million ha) and was lowest in 2008 (33.7 million ha).

About this release

  • Experimental estimates included in this publication provide an insight into Australia’s land cover from 1988 to 2020.
  • Users should exercise caution in comparing these estimates to other environmental indicators due to differences in concepts, scope, coverage, and methods. Land cover relates to the observed physical and biological cover of the land surface and should not be confused with land use.
  • This experimental account is compiled using Digital Earth Australia land cover spatial products which uses spatial data and images recorded by satellites to detect changes in land cover across Australia.

Perennial and non-perennial water

National

Perennial water refers to inland water bodies (e.g. artificial dams, lakes, rivers) where the land is covered by water for at least nine months of the year. Non-perennial water refers to inland water bodies where water cover is present for less than nine months of the year.

Fluctuations in land covered by perennial and non-perennial water are in response to climatic conditions such as El Niño, La Niña and Indian Ocean Dipole that can be observed across the time series. 

Points of interest over the time series include:

  • Land covered by perennial water and non-perennial water was at a record high in 2011, 0.4% of total land (3.1 million ha) and 0.7% of total land (5.3 million ha) respectively.
  • From 1988 to 2020 areas covered by perennial water and non-perennial water have decreased by an average of 9.7 thousand ha and 22.9 thousand ha per year respectively. 
  • Land covered by perennial water was at its lowest level in 2019, 0.2% of total land (1.6 million ha). This was largely driven by falls in Western Australia and New South Wales.
  • From 2018 to 2019, land covered by perennial water decreased by 8.7% (down 157.2 thousand ha). Of this, 70.1 thousand ha transitioned to non-perennial water and 48.5 thousand ha transitioned to natural terrestrial vegetated: herbaceous (e.g. grassland).

Linear estimates are provided for illustrative purposes only and calculated on the basis of original series land cover figures.

State

  • In 2019, Western Australia recorded its lowest level of perennial water cover (384.4 thousand ha), while New South Wales recorded its second lowest level (186.0 thousand ha) since 2007.
  • From 2018 to 2019, perennial water cover in Western Australia decreased by 13.6% (down 60.3 thousand ha). Of this, 22.6 thousand ha was previously classed as non-perennial water and 22.4 thousand ha was natural surfaces (e.g. bare earth or rock). For New South Wales, perennial water cover decreased by 19.0% (43.5 thousand ha) with 21.4 thousand ha transitioning into natural terrestrial vegetated: herbaceous (grassland) and 13.0 thousand ha transitioning into non-perennial water cover. 

Natural terrestrial vegetated: herbaceous and Natural surfaces

National

Natural terrestrial vegetated: herbaceous refers to areas dominated by grasslands and shrubs where the vegetative cover is below two metres in height and woody canopy cover is less than twenty percent. Vegetation is not planted by humans but can be influenced by human activities (e.g. grazing).

Natural surfaces refer to areas with less than four percent vegetative cover and is dominated by bare rock areas, sands, and deserts.

Points of interest over the time series include:

  • In 2019, 43.7% of total land (336.1 million ha) was natural surfaces and 40.4% (310.9 million ha) was natural terrestrial vegetated: herbaceous. This was first year in the series where natural surfaces was the dominant land cover type. This was largely driven by changes in Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
  • Natural terrestrial vegetated: herbaceous was at its highest level in 2011 (67.4% of total land, 518.6 million ha). At the same time land covered by natural surfaces fell to its lowest level (13.6% of total land, 104.7 million ha).
  • Natural surfaces had a net increase of 62.9 million ha (up 23.0%) from 2018 to 2019. Of this, 60.6 million ha had transitioned from natural terrestrial vegetated: herbaceous and 1.2 million ha from natural terrestrial vegetated: woody (tree covered). Natural terrestrial vegetated: herbaceous and natural surfaces largely represent arid regions of Australia and are highly susceptible to climatic conditions. The data shows that natural terrestrial vegetated: herbaceous cover increases during wet periods and decreases in dry periods. The opposite effect is observed for natural surfaces.
  • From 1988 to 2020, the area covered by natural surfaces increased an average of 2.1 million ha per year while natural terrestrial vegetated: herbaceous areas decreased an average of 1.0 million ha per year.  

Linear estimates are provided for illustrative purposes only and calculated on the basis of original series land cover figures.

State

  • In 2019, Queensland had the largest coverage of natural terrestrial vegetated: herbaceous accounting for 33.4% of total land, followed by Western Australia (32.9%). Western Australia and the Northern Territory had the largest coverage of natural surfaces, 36.7% and 21.4% respectively.
  • The national decrease in natural terrestrial vegetated: herbaceous in 2019 was driven by decreases in Western Australia (down 36.2 million ha) followed by the Northern Territory (down 15.0 million ha). These decreases were largely driven by a transition to natural surfaces. In Western Australia 41.1 million ha transitioned to natural surfaces, while the Northern Territory had 16.5 million ha transitioned to natural surfaces.   
  • Western Australia saw a further decrease in terrestrial vegetated: herbaceous cover to 96.3 million ha (down by 5.7%) from 2019 to 2020. This resulted in its lowest level of terrestrial vegetated: herbaceous cover since 1988.

Cultivated terrestrial vegetated: herbaceous

National

Cultivated terrestrial vegetated: herbaceous includes herbaceous vegetation (e.g. crops, grasses and shrubs) that are planted, cultivated and/or require human activities to maintain it (e.g. tillage, harvest, irrigation, grazing).

Decreases in cultivated herbaceous vegetation cover are likely driven by changes to intensive agricultural practices with a shift towards improved land management practices (including grazing), nature conservation and managed resource protection. Changes in agricultural practices have most likely resulted in a transition to natural herbaceous vegetation cover i.e. allowing the land to return to native vegetation.

Points of interest over the time series include:

  • In 1992, cultivated terrestrial vegetation was at its highest level (13.9% of total land, 106.9 million ha) and recorded its lowest level in 2008 (4.4% of total land, 33.7 million ha).
  • From 1988 to 2020, the area covered by cultivated herbaceous vegetation decreased an average of 1.8 million ha per year.
  • The years 2015 to 2019 contained four of the five lowest stock positions in the time series (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019) but 2020 saw a 31.6% (51.5 million ha) increase. This increase was driven by transitions from natural terrestrial herbaceous (7.9 million ha) and natural surfaces (6.0 million ha). The increase was offset by 1.6 million ha of cultivated terrestrial herbaceous vegetation transitioning into terrestrial woody cover. 

Linear estimates are provided for illustrative purposes only and calculated on the basis of original series land cover figures.

State

  • In 2020, New South Wales was the largest contributor to national cultivated herbaceous land cover (39.2% of total cultivated herbaceous land cover) followed by Western Australia (21.5% of total cultivated herbaceous land cover).
  • The national increase in cultivated herbaceous vegetation observed in 2020 was driven by a 129.6% increase in New South Wales (up 11.4 million ha). The net transitions for cultivated herbaceous land cover in New South Wales followed the national pattern.

Natural terrestrial vegetated: woody

National

Natural terrestrial vegetated: woody land cover includes all identified terrestrial woody vegetation (including natural and planation forests).

Points of interest over the time series include:

  • Terrestrial woody vegetation was at its highest level in 2000 (14.4% of total land, 110.8 million ha) and its lowest level in 1991 (7.3% of total land, 55.9 million ha).
  • From 1988 to 2020, the area covered by terrestrial woody vegetation increased an average of 0.8 million ha per year.
  • Terrestrial woody vegetation decreased 15.1% from 2018 to 2019 (down 14.0 million ha) then increased 13.1% from 2019 to 2020 (up 89.1 million ha).
  • The decrease in terrestrial woody vegetation cover from 2018 to 2019 was driven by net transitions out of terrestrial woody cover into natural terrestrial herbaceous vegetation (12.3 million ha) and natural surfaces (1.2 million ha). The increase in woody vegetation from 2019 to 2020 was driven by net transitions from natural terrestrial herbaceous vegetation (9.0 million ha) and cultivated terrestrial herbaceous vegetation (1.6 million ha). 

Linear estimates are provided for illustrative purposes only and calculated on the basis of original series land cover figures.

State

  • Queensland was the largest contributor to national terrestrial woody vegetation cover (30.4% of total terrestrial woody vegetation) in 2020 followed by New South Wales (25.4% of total terrestrial woody vegetation).
  • All states and territories recorded a decrease in terrestrial woody vegetation cover from 2018 to 2019. The largest decreases were observed in Western Australia (4.9 million ha), Queensland (3.3 million ha), and New South Wales (2.5 million ha).
  • The national increase in terrestrial woody vegetation cover from 2019 to 2020 was driven by increases in New South Wales (6.3 million ha) and Queensland (3.6 million ha). This was offset by a decrease in Western Australia (1.7 million ha).
  • The increase in terrestrial woody vegetation cover from 2019 to 2020 in New South Wales was driven by net transitions from natural terrestrial herbaceous vegetation (4.9 million ha) and cultivated terrestrial herbaceous vegetation (0.8 million ha). Over the same period the increase in terrestrial woody vegetation in Queensland was driven by net transitions from natural terrestrial herbaceous vegetation (3.5 million ha). In Western Australia, the decrease in terrestrial woody vegetation was driven by net transitions to natural terrestrial herbaceous vegetation (1.0 million ha).

Interactive map showing land cover by Statistical Area Level 2

The interactive map allows users to view selected land cover information at the Statistical Area Level 2 (SA2). To view the interactive map: https://absstats.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=0e6b6d8525a64998ad6a9d12f9cc7c39

Caution: if the link for the interactive map is not live, please try again later as it may take a few hours after the 11:30am release on the ABS website. 

How to use

  1. Navigating topics: maps can be selected via the drop-down menu (mobile devices) or the tabs (larger screens).
  2. Search: the search icon opens the search function. It is set to look for locations such as addresses, suburbs and postcodes contained within an SA2.
  3. Data: on each map, an SA2 region can be selected to view the underlying data. Data for all SA2s can be found in the Download section of this publication.
  4. If the maps do not load successfully, please try refreshing this page.

More information

Statistical Area 2 boundaries are presented according to the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS), 2016. For more information see the Statistical Geography page of the ABS website or the following: Australian Statistical Geography Standard, Volume 1 - Main Structure and Greater Capital City Statistical Areas, July 2016 (cat. no. 1270.0.55.001).

Further information on the statistical geography used can be found in the Methodology section of this release.

Related information

National Land Account, Experimental Estimates, 2016

Physical Account for Land Cover, Statistical Area Level 2 (SA2), 2010 and 2015

Data download

Download all (8.6 MB)

Data cubes

Data files

Data Explorer datasets

Caution: Data in the Data Explorer is currently released after the 11:30am release on the ABS website. Please check the time period when using Data Explorer.

Help for: Data Explorer Datasets

Timeseries for Land Cover Stock Position, 1988-2020 - Yearly stock positions for each land cover class, SA2, State/Territory, and National

Physical Account for Land Cover, 2015 and 2016 to 2019 and 2020 - Yearly physical accounts for the period ending 2016 onwards, SA2, State/Territory, and National

Change Matrix for Land Cover, 2015 and 2016 to 2019 and 2020 - Net change matrices for yearly accounts ending 2016 onwards, SA2, State/Territory, and National 

Post release changes

23 June 2022 -  URL updated for 'Change Matrix for Land Cover, 2015 and 2016 to 2019 and 2020' under Data Explorer dataset section.

Methodology

National Land Cover Account methodology, 2020