The Natural Resource Atlas is the New South Wales portal to maps and data for environmental management, planning, research and education. We aim to be a comprehensive catalog of authoritative, significant natural resource databases and geographic information held by the NSW Government, as well as providing links to significant data holdings in local and federal government and other sites.
Use the NRAtlas to browse and create your own maps across a range of environmental themes.
The NSW Natural Resource Atlas gives easy access to environmental maps and data for the whole State, or just one region. The regions on the home page are Catchment Management Authority (CMA) areas of operation in NSW, which came into effect in January 2004.
Information in the NRAtlas is also organised by topic. The topics used are based on international best practice: ISO 19115 and the European GEMET Thesaurus.
Because it's interactive, the NRAtlas can show many more maps than a traditional atlas. You can turn layers on and off, search for more layers, create maps on specific themes and find out detailed information about features by clicking on the map.
With the NRAtlas you can:
Click Help for more information.
The NRAtlas gives easy access to over 160 datasets, around 5,000 metadata records and many authoritative websites managed by more than a dozen organisations.
Maps and data for biodiversity, water quality/quantity, satellite imagery, major roads and infrastructure, natural resource administrative boundaries, salinity and much more can be found in a few clicks. Each map or dataset is linked to its own metadata record, which describes the data, its quality and contact details.
The NRAtlas is designed for anyone involved or interested in the environment, whether a member of the public or a government officer.
To use the NRAtlas you don't need any special skills or software. It can be operated using a standard PC and Internet browser (Firefox or Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 and higher).
The NRAtlas is an invaluable tool for:
The NSW Government collects and maps data on natural resources, including geology, land, water, flora and fauna, agriculture and other topics.
The NSW Natural Resource Atlas is a NSW Government initiative to provide a single entry point to natural resource information about the State.
The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is the lead agency. Contributing agencies include the Department of Environment and Conservation, Department of Lands, Department of Primary Industries and Australian Museum.
These natural resource management agencies developed individual NRAtlas products and created the NRAtlas under the Community Access to Natural Resources Information (CANRI) Program. The NRAtlas is now managed by a Coordinator in DNR.
The NRAtlas was built by Social Change Online and designed by Sinclair Knight Mertz.
The original NRAtlas was the first application developed under the CANRI Program in 2000. The NRAtlas is now a much more user-friendly and powerful tool for natural resource management.
Unlike a paper atlas, the online Natural Resource Atlas sources its information in real time directly from data providers. This distributed system uses Open Geospatial Consortium (OGCTM) web service standards so all the data can be viewed together in the one map. The agencies have also created individual website applications tailored to viewing specific data, especially where the information is quite complex. The list of maps and other information on the NRAtlas grows as more data is made available from these agencies.
The NSW Government's pioneering approach under CANRI has already influenced trends in worldwide technology development and standards for web mapping. CANRI is also a leading model for the emerging Australian Spatial Data Infrastructure.
We are continually improving the NRAtlas to meet your changing needs. Please send us your thoughts about the site as well as any additional data or features you would like to see.