1.3.2 Ecological assets

Summary

The water-dependent asset register for the preliminary assessment extent (PAE) of the Galilee subregion contains 3973 individual ecological assets from the original asset list of 4122 nominated assets. The combined sets of water-dependent assets encompass a large proportion of the area of the PAE. The register consists of 2383 assets within the ‘Vegetation’ subgroup, 151 within the ‘Groundwater’ subgroup and 1439 within the ‘Surface water’ subgroup. All nominated ‘Surface water’ and ‘Groundwater’ assets are assessed as water dependent. Of nominated ‘Vegetation’ subgroup assets, 64 groundwater-dependent ecosystem assets were excluded because of their low reliability status and a lack of evidence of water dependence using the datasets based on satellite imagery, and 81 species habitat assets were excluded as the habitats could not be shown to fulfil the criteria for water dependence. The asset register includes six threatened ecological communities and the potential spatial habitat distribution of 19 species listed under the Commonwealth’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). The asset register also includes 40 regional ecosystems classes and the potential habitat distributions of 24 additional species listed under Queensland’s Nature Conservation Act 1992 (Nature Conservation Act).