While the term ‘land’ commonly refers only to terrestrial areas, in natural capital accounting terms, it may apply also to areas covered by water.
Metric:
Area of land, by land use type and/or land cover type
Metric:
Quality of environmental asset
Metric:
N/A
Metric:
N/A
Units
Example methods / guidance / references
What are tiers?
Tier 1
Estimate using own judgement and observations
For example, estimate % of total land area with each soil type, multiplied by total land area.
Tier 2
Estimate using third-party professional estimates or public data
Tier 3
Model or measure based on site-specific surveys/sampling, remote or in-field sensing, laboratory analysis, etc.
Example data sources
Internal records
Third-party data sources
Maps of Australian soil types are available at the Australian National Soil Information System (ANSIS) Data Portal.
Site-specific measurements or model outputs
Data on area of soil resources by soil type for New South Wales are available on request at the Central Resource for Sharing and Enabling Environmental Data in NSW (SEED) – Experimental Environmental-Economic Accounts for NSW – Soil Accounts – 2021.
Notes
For Tier 1 it would be appropriate to use whatever local soil classification the user is familiar with, and for Tier 3, whatever soil classification is used by third-party soil information providers. For Tier 2, it would be appropriate to use a nationally accepted soil classification standard such as Soil Science Australia’s standards for soil types or the 28 major groupings used in the FAO’s Harmonized World Soil Database.
Note that volume (in cubic metres) of soil resources by soil type could also be recorded – however, reliable data is unlikely to be widely available.
Notes
No metrics are provided here because land does not provide a monetary flow of natural inputs.
Notes
No metrics are provided here because land does not provide a physical flow of natural inputs.
Units
Example methods / guidance / references
What are tiers?
Tier 1
Estimate using own judgement and observations
Tier 2
Estimate using third-party professional estimates or public data
For example, estimates of the value (from which ‘quality’ can be inferred) of commercial and rural land in Australia can be obtained from state and territory Valuers-General offices.
The value of residential land in Australian national land accounts is estimated based on the ABS Residential Property Price Index (RPPI) value of residential dwelling stock, which includes the value of land, minus the capital estimates of the value of dwellings derived by the Perpetual Inventory Method (see Australian System of National Accounts: Concepts, Sources and Methods, 2020-2021 financial year.)
Tier 3
Model or measure based on site-specific surveys/sampling, remote or in-field sensing, laboratory analysis, etc.
Example data sources
Internal records
Third-party data sources
Maps showing land asset value in Australia (for whole states and territories only) are available at the EEA Dashboard.
Site-specific measurements or model outputs
Notes
The ‘quality’ of land as an environmental asset includes its location and the uses for which it is suitable or permitted. These in turn determine its monetary value.