Natural Capital Region indicators

Murray and Riverland – South Australia

The following table summarises data used for natural capital condition indicators in Natural Capital Region. Where possible, publicly available data is used. The spatial reporting units (planning units) for this region are initially developed from the Hydrobasins dataset for Australia and are hydrologically based catchments aggregated to a spatial scale appropriate for catchment planning and reporting.

Outcomes	Outcome rationale	Indicators	Indicator Rationale	Initial condition method
Erosion Processes	Erosion process indicators provide an estimate of fine sediment generation. Addressing erosion also significantly reduces loads of particulate phosphorus, particulate nitrogen and particulate carbon.	Fine sediment from hillslope erosion	Soil loss from farmland decreases productivity; a proportion reaches streams and receiving waters as fine sediment pollution.	Hillslope erosion data was derived from a Truii developed implementation of the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (Ellis et al., 2024). Remotely sensed ground cover averaged for 5 Autumn seasons was used for the C Factor derivation.
		Fine sediment from gully erosion	Impacts aquatic ecology.	Gully erosion estimates were derived using the method in McCloskey et al., (2021a) with gully density data from NLWRA (2005).
		Fine sediment from streambank erosion	Impacts aquatic ecology.	Streambank erosion estimates are based on broad scale modelling described in “Modernising reach-scale stream bank erosion estimation in Australia”, Ellis et al., (2025).
Water quality	Important for considering aquatic ecology impacts and human health (microbial)	Particulate Nitrogen (PN)	Impacts aquatic ecology.	From the RUSLE generated hillslope estimates, combined with the Soil and Landscape Grid of Australia (SLGA), total soil nitrogen (TN)and total phosphorus (TP) (%) data, the erosion rate was converted to a mass of TN/TP. The total nutrient loads were then apportioned into speciated nutrients based on a review of water quality monitoring data, provided by the Queensland State Government (DESI 2024).
		Particulate Phosphorus (PP)
		Dissolved Inorganic Nitrogen (DIN)
		Dissolved (Inorganic Phosphorus (DIP)
		Dissolved organic Nitrogen (DON)
		Dissolved Organic Phosphorus (DOP)
		Microbial – Bacteria	Threat to human health	Uses the Australian Government National Pollutant Inventory locations of intensive agricultural feedlots and piggeries combined with the Baker et al., (2016) method for predicting stream based microbial pollution risk.
Biodiversity	Maintained or improved biodiversity is a common goal of NRM work. In the absence of a simple to derive and broadly applicable measure, Natural Capital Region uses the extent of woody vegetation as a surrogate indicator for biodiversity.	Wetland – Riverine	Woody vegetation has high biodiversity value.	Wetlands are inferred from Catchment Scale Land Use Of Australia V2 and grouped into the following broad classes: A Riverine class was added using the Australian wide HydroRIVERS data (buffered by 90m) Swamp - swamp and marsh areas Estuarine - tidal wetlands Terrestrial - all remaining land not classified as wetland Presence of woody vegetation is inferred from National Forest and Sparse Woody Vegetation 2023 , which is then adjusted according to clearable land categories. A mask of areas deemed ‘un-clearable’ through conservation or regulated protection is built from relevant land use and State regulation data (where available). This may also be complimented by data from the Collaborative Australian Protected Areas Data (2024). The wetlands and woody vegetation layers are combined resulting in the final biodiversity layer expressing the extent of clearable and non-clearable woody vegetation within each wetland class. Initial condition for riparian extent per planning unit is an Intersection of riparian areas with woody vegetation in hectares.
		Wetland – Palustrine (swamps)
		Wetland – Estuaries
		Terrestrial – Woody Vegetation
First Nations	Engaging with First Nations people on NRM issues is best practice	Direct engagement	Direct involvement in project design delivers benefits for both the project and First Nations communities.	Initial condition per planning unit is the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Island Peoples (age 15+) engaged in employment, education, and training (Australian Bureau of Statistics SA2 region SA2). A spatial averaging of the SA2 values relevant to each planning unit was then applied.
First Nations		On-country values	Projects conducted on-country provide the greatest First Nations benefits.	Initial condition per planning unit is the proportion of area that is part of the indigenous estate. A weighting system has been applied to indigenous estate categories as not all estates provide equal First Nations benefits.
Social	NRM strategies often seeks to engage communities	Community engagement	Positive social outcomes where community is engaged.	Uses the Australian Bureau of Statistics SA2 region SIEFA index of education and occupation. This index summaries variables relating to the educational and occupational aspects of relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage. A spatial averaging of the SA2 values relevant to each planning unit was then applied.
Economic	NRM strategies often seek to support agribusiness and support the regional economy	Industry economic	Projects offer value to landholders.	Uses the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Science 10-year average (2012-2021) rate of return (excluding capital appreciation) for broadacre agriculture. A spatial averaging of the SA2 values relevant to each planning unit was then applied.
Economic		Regional economic	Projects offer value to the regional economy.	Uses the Australian Bureau of Statistics SA2 region SEIFA index of economic resources. Areas with higher scores have greater access to economic resources than other areas. A spatial averaging of the SA2 values relevant to each planning unit was then applied.
Climate Change	NRM strategies often include a focus on measures to mitigate or provide resilience to climate change	Carbon sequestration	Carbon sequestration is an important store of carbon.	The proportion of area with woody vegetation cover is used as an indicator of carbon sequestration initial condition. See the Biodiversity indicator for a description of the data supporting this indicator.
		Land resilience	Increased cover will increase land resilience.	Uses fractional cover differential to represent the level of ground cover relative to the long-term average cover, to represent how country is responding to grazing pressure. Truii have developed a Dynamic Reference Cover Method analysis to inform this indicator. To identify the ‘reference pixels’ that sustain cover, the Queensland Government Landsat Seasonal Ground Cover Timeseries Statistics product was sourced for the relevant jurisdiction. Seasonal (fractional) Ground Cover pixels from a recent dry period (often from the year 2019) are compared to reference pixel cover values to perform the DRCM analysis. Finally, each DRCM pixel value represented as the percentage above (or below) the cover value of its relevant average reference pixel value. This percentage difference is used in Natural Capital Region setup.
		Methane production	Methane is a potent greenhouse gas.	Uses the ratio of recent beef herd relative to maximum beef herd. Calculated from the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Science 10-year average (2012-2021) beef herd divided by the maximum beef heard since 1990. A spatial averaging of the SA2 values relevant to each planning unit was then applied.