Monitoring and Reporting Land Use Change and Its Effects on the Queensland Environment

• Land use datasets and their application to inform and influence decision-making require a combination of technology, scientific credibility, interpretative artistry and cross-disciplinary collaborations.

• The Queensland Land Use Mapping Program (QLUMP) has been instrumental in providing land use information to assist decision-making and investments by government to reduce the pollutant loads from catchments adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef.

• Products generated through QLUMP, such as the type of land use and monitoring changes in land use patterns across Queensland, provide lines of evidence to support priority programs, such as the Reef Water Quality Protection Plan, the South East Queensland Regional Plan, strategic cropping land and the State of the Environment.

• These applications demonstrate the value of adhering to the Australian Collaborative Land Use and Management Program (ACLUMP) guidelines to ensure a methodology is consistent, accurate, reliable, cost-effective and makes best use of available ancillary databases and data management infrastructure.

• Several emerging land use policy and planning issues in Queensland, and benefits from scientific and collaborative arrangements for land use mapping to inform and influence state and national scale issues are explored.