The Australian National Aquatic Ecosystems (ANAE) classification of the Murray-Darling Basin

The Australian National Aquatic Ecosystem (ANAE) classification of the Murray-Darling Basin was developed to provide consistent cross-jurisdictional support for adaptive management of aquatic ecosystems with specific relevance to the management of Commonwealth environmental water. The ANAE classification integrates the best available mapping data combined with simple rules to define ecosystem types using a small number of relevant attributes (e.g. water regime, water source, salinity, landform and dominant vegetation).

The classification is currently used by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) and Commonwealth Environmental Water Office (CEWO) to support monitoring, evaluation and adaptive management of water resources in the Basin.

ANAE Classification of the Murray-Darling Basin v3.0 released

In 2021 a new update was released as v3.0 which dramatically improves the mapping of floodplain systems and completes the mapping in western NSW.  The update also includes improvements to river mapping using the new Australian Hydrological Geospatial Fabric (Geofabric) v3. The mapping of the ANAE classification of the Murrray-Darling Basin is now considered to be ‘complete’ for the Basin, representing the best available mapping for all jurisdictions. As part of the v3.0 update I have written a User Guide that attempts to consolidate reference information and provide helpful hints and approaches for working with the data set.

All the data is published for open access under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence

Clients: the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) and Commonwealth Environmental Water Office (CEWO) supported by the Basin States.

More Information:

ANAE classification of the Murray-Darling Basin
Map of aquatic ecosystems in the Murray-Darling Basin
Chowilla floodplain and the meeting of SA,VIC,NSW borders. NSW mapping is incomplete.
Interim Australian National Aquatic Ecosystem (ANAE) Classification Framework
The Australian National Aquatic Ecosystems (ANAE) Classification Framework is module 2 of the Aquatic Ecosystems Toolkit
Revision history for the ANAE mapping of the Murray-Darling Basin
ANAE classification of the Murrumbidgee River downstream (Lowbidgee) and Great Cumbung Swamp at the end of the Lachlan River
ANAE classification showing the Hattah lakes Ramsar site
ANAE classification of wetlands and rivers at the junction of the Darling River with the Murray River