The National Parks and Wildlife Service undertook a comprehensive compilation of resource information undertaken over the Wollemi and Blue Mountains Parks system in 1984 and 1985. As part of this data audit and compilation, vegetation information was compiled over 1.4 million hectares of public and private land. The vegetation data formed a critical part of other environmental resource data, including terrain, and fire history, intended to be used in a fire prediction system.
Nic Gellie and Rick McRae, together with technical assistants, set about compiling a vegetation map for the whole Blue Mountains-Wollemi land system. A vegetation province map was drawn up using an interpretation of Landsat TM imagery, lithology, and geomorphology. These botanical sub-provinces happened to coincide with environmental regions where rainfall, geology, and landform were relatively similar. The botanical sub-province map helped to break down this large landscape into readily modellable vegetation sub-regions.
An extensive vegetation survey was undertaken to understand the patterns of vegetation within each of the provinces. After an extensive ground survey of the vegetation in the Blue Mountains-Wollemi land system, a vegetation model was developed which used a dichotomous key which linked a vegetation type to a set of environmental predictors. The modellers identified vegetation types that could not be modelled using this modelling approach, so a hybrid system of mapping was developed to accommodate two methods of mapping. Those vegetation types difficult to model were mapped onto 1:100,000 map sheets covering the region. These were then combined with the modelled vegetation types. As the mapped vegetation data had a higher level of coincidence than the modelled vegetation types, these were given a higher order of precedence in the hybrid vegetation map. This approach simplified the approach to mapping vegetation over the large area of the land system without drawing boundaries of vegetation types on a large number of 1:25,000 maps.
An index of the vegetation types in the Blue Mountains-Wollemi region is shown on a separate web page. Complete descriptions of the vegetation are provided on further separate web pages linked to the main index. The individual profiles of each vegetation types have been updated to reflect the National Vegetation Attributes System (NVIS) and newer vegetation data that has been undertaken since 1985. The updated descriptions will be added to the web site, as soon as each one is updated. Presently there are about nine linked and updated vegetation profiles.
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