Cadastre Forest Insight Pack

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Overview

The Cadastre Forest Insight Pack provides detailed forest structure classification for land identified as “Forest” across Australia. This product delivers forest vegetation analysis that enables forestry operations, biodiversity assessment, carbon credit evaluation, and timber resource management.

Product Purpose

This insight pack provides the cadastre_forest detail table, which drills into cadastre polygons identified as “Forest” in the base cadastre_lulc table. The data supports:

  • Forestry analysis for timber resource assessment and carbon credit evaluation

  • Biodiversity monitoring and conservation planning

  • Forest structure classification (Woodland, Open, Closed, Unclassified)

  • Integration with Geoscape Cadastre for spatial forest analysis

Product Structure

The cadastre_forest table provides forest structure classification for cadastre polygons identified as Forest in the base LULC classification. Each row describes forest coverage for a given cadastre polygon, year, and forest class.

This table has yearly temporal resolution, with classification reflecting the dominant forest structure observed across each calendar year.

Key Features

Temporal Resolution

The cadastre_forest table provides yearly temporal resolution, consistent with the base cadastre_lulc table. Classification reflects the dominant forest structure observed across the year.

Forest Classification

Forest vegetation is classified into four categories based on canopy height and crown coverage:

  • Woodland - Vegetation with height >2m and 20-50% crown cover

  • Open - Vegetation where the canopy does not have continuous crown coverage (50-80%)

  • Closed - Vegetation where the canopy has continuous crown coverage (80-100%)

  • Unclassified - Vegetation which is unable to be classified into a defined forest class

This classification enables differentiation between dense closed forests, open woodlands, and intermediate forest structures.

Spatial Integration

Data is spatially enabled by joining to the Geoscape Cadastre product via the cadastre_polygon_pid field. This allows customers to associate forest classification data with cadastral geometries for spatial analysis and visualisation.

Delivery Format

Data is delivered as PSV (Pipe Separated Value) files with .psv extension, compatible with relational database applications and spreadsheet tools. PSV format uses the pipe character ( | ) as the field delimiter, avoiding ambiguity with comma-delimited formats where field values may contain commas.

Use Cases

This insight pack supports various forestry and environmental analysis scenarios:

Forestry Analysis and Timber Resource Assessment

Forest structure classification (Woodland, Open, Closed) enables identification of harvestable timber resources, assessment of forest density, and planning of forestry operations.

Carbon Credits and Biodiversity Assessment

Forest structure and coverage data informs carbon sequestration modeling, biodiversity habitat assessment, and environmental impact evaluation. Supports carbon credit verification and conservation planning.

Forest Structure Monitoring

Yearly time series enables tracking of forest structure changes, identifying areas of forest densification, thinning, or transition between woodland and closed forest categories.

Integration with LULC Insight Pack

This insight pack is designed to work in combination with the Cadastre LULC Insight Pack:

  1. Use cadastre_lulc table to identify parcels classified as “Forest”

  2. Join to cadastre_forest table via cadastre_polygon_pid to access detailed forest structure classification

Customers focused solely on forestry analysis can subscribe to the Forest insight pack combined with the base LULC layer. For comprehensive land use intelligence including agricultural analysis, combine all three insight packs (LULC, Crop, and Forest).

Technical Description

Data Scope

The cadastre_forest table provides detailed forest structure classification for cadastre polygons identified as Forest in Table 1 (cadastre_lulc). Each row describes forest coverage for a given cadastre polygon, year, and forest class.

Forest Structure Classification

Forest vegetation structure is classified based on vegetation height and crown coverage percentage:

Woodland

Vegetation with height >2m and 20-50% crown cover. Represents sparse forest structure with significant gaps between tree canopies.

Open

Vegetation where the canopy does not have continuous crown coverage (50-80%). Intermediate forest density with partial canopy closure.

Closed

Vegetation where the canopy has continuous crown coverage (80-100%). Dense forest with near-complete canopy closure.

Unclassified

Vegetation which is unable to be classified into a defined forest class. May represent edge cases, transition zones, or areas where classification confidence is low.

Temporal Resolution

The cadastre_forest table provides yearly temporal resolution, consistent with the base cadastre_lulc table. Classification reflects the dominant forest structure observed across each calendar year.

Cadastral Area Calculation

Area has been calculated using a parcel’s relevant GDA2020 MGA zone. When, due to the size of a parcel, a record is split between two MGA zones, the area is split into two parts favoring the leftmost MGA zone: 7850 > 7851 > 7852 > 7853 > 7854 > 7855 > 7856.

Coverage Area and Percentage

The coverage_area attribute represents the distinct summed area based on the combination of land use category and forest class for a cadastral polygon part.

Some coverage areas may have an area of 0m². These have been maintained to assist in explaining where the sum of Agricultural Land Use records do not match the area of the cadastral parcel.

The coverage_pct attribute represents the percentage of the total polygon area covered by a class/subtype. Because of rounding, it is possible for the sum of coverage_pct grouped by a cadastre_polygon_pid to be greater than 100% (e.g. 100.02%).

Classification Methodology

Forest structure classification is derived from satellite imagery analysis provided by Satsure. The classification methodology analyses vegetation height and canopy coverage to assign forest class categories.

Specific details on imagery acquisition, processing workflows, and classification algorithms are subject to ongoing refinement as the product evolves.

Data Dictionary

Table: cadastre_forest

Detail table providing forest structure classification for cadastre polygons identified as Forest in Table 1. Each row describes forest coverage for a given cadastre polygon, year, and forest class.

Columns

Column

Type

Nullable

Description

cadastre_forest_pid

character string(15)

NOT NULL

Primary key — unique identifier for this record

cadastre_polygon_pid

character plsfastring(15)

NOT NULL

Unique persistent identifier for the cadastre polygon

cadastre_pid

character string(15)

NOT NULL

Persistent identifier for the cadastral feature for the life of the lot’s title

year

number(4)

NOT NULL

Calendar year the coverage data relates to

state

character string(3)

NOT NULL

Australian state or territory code — see domain values

total_cadastre_area

number(14,2)

NOT NULL

Total area of the cadastre polygon (square metres)

forest_class

character string(20)

NOT NULL

Classification of forest vegetation structure — see domain values

coverage_area

number(14,2)

NOT NULL

Area of the cadastre polygon covered by this forest class (square metres)

coverage_pct

number(5,2)

NOT NULL

Coverage area as a percentage of the total cadastre area

Domain Values: forest_class

Value

Description

Woodland

Vegetation with height >2m and 20-50% crown cover

Open

Vegetation where the canopy does not have continuous crown coverage (50-80%)

Closed

Vegetation where the canopy has continuous crown coverage (80-100%)

Unclassified

Vegetation which is unable to be classified into a defined forest class

Domain Values: state

Value

Description

NSW

New South Wales

VIC

Victoria

QLD

Queensland

SA

South Australia

WA

Western Australia

TAS

Tasmania

ACT

Australian Capital Territory

NT

Northern Territory