Land use mapping encompassing the Hunter catchment commenced in February 2006 and was completed in September 2012. The project acquired aerial photography covering discrete areas and affordable high resolution SPOT 5 imagery, which was used to update the previous 2002/2003 land use maping.;
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Land use is classified to three separate classification schemes. These classification schemes are:;
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* NSW Land Use Mapping Program (LUMAP).;
* NSW SCALD (Standard Classification for Attributes of Land) Classification;
* ALUM (Australian Land Use and Management) Classification.;
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The LUMAP Classification is OEH's (formally DIPNR and DECC) most recent classification for mapping of land use classes for NSW. It is a simple numeric classification, open-ended to enable additional classes to be added. ;
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Prior to LUMAP, the SCALD classification was the standard for mapping of land use in NSW. It is a combined alpha-numeric classification system.;
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The ALUM classification is based upon the modified Baxter & Russell classification and presented according to the specifications contained in www.LUCs.gov.au/land&water/landuse. ;
Version 40 of the classification is used to describe the land use classes;
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The date of the data set is set as the land use occurring at the time the aerial photographs were flown with minor changes that have been noted during field inspections and/or appear to differ on the SPOT 5 image.;
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Mapping for this dataset is limited to the 100k topographic sheets of:;
Camberwell, Cessnock, Dungog, Gulgong (part), Howes Valley (part), Merriwa, Mt Pomany (part), Mudgee (part), Muswellbrook and Newcastle.;
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Where full sheets have been completed the mapping will extend beyond the Hunter Catchment boundary.