A step towards an objective procedure for land classification and mapping

This paper outlines a method for explicitly classifying landscape using 4 km² grid cells, a set of attributes derived from topographic and geologic maps and an agglomerative numerical taxonomic procedure which can accommodate mixed data. The method was used to classify the landscapes of the Hunter Valley, NSW (22 000 km²) and the landscape classes generated are briefly described. These classes are compared with the land systems of the Hunter which were developed by traditional integrated survey procedure. It is concluded that the method could provide a more satisfactory starting-point for integrated land survey than air photo pattern analysis.