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 land cover from 1988-2020 are available at Digital Earth Australia – Land Cover.
Maps of Australian land use at various scales are available at Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) – Land use data download.
Experimental land accounts for various geographical areas used by the Australian Bureau of Statistics are available at the Environmental-Economic Accounts Dashboard.
Site-specific measurements or model outputs
Data on Australian land cover are available at Digital Earth Australia – DEA Land Cover.
Data on Australian land use at various scales are available at Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) – Land use data download.
Notes
See Glossary & Abbreviations for land use and land cover classifications. Land cover type as referred to in the SEEA-CF 2014 (para 5.258) refers to the FAO international standard classification system, the Land Cover Classification System, version 3 (LCCS 3). Local land cover type classifications can be used instead, but should ideally be cross-referenced to LCCS 3. LCCS 3 implements an international classification standard, ISO 19144-2:2023 Geographic information – Classification systems — Part 2: Land Cover Meta Language (LCML) that allows different land cover classification systems to be compared and integrated.
Areas of land or inland waters which are significant for cultural reasons could potentially be recorded under SEEA land use types 1.6 or 2.3 (other uses of land/inland waters not elsewhere classified) or (if applicable) as a separate local land cover type, distinct from non-culturally significant areas of the same land cover type.
Last updated: 11th November 2024
Notes
No metrics are provided here because land does not provide a monetary flow of natural inputs.
Last updated: 3rd October 2024
Notes
No metrics are provided here because land does not provide a physical flow of natural inputs.
Last updated: 3rd October 2024
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.
Last updated: 11th October 2024