SEED data follows recognised standards and principles. These support transparency, accessible data, responsible data management and better decision-making across government, industry, research and the community.
This page explains the main standards and principles behind how we share data:
- metadata and data quality
- environmental categories
- licensing and reuse
- NSW Government Open Data Policy
- FAIR Principles
- CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance (in progress).
Metadata and data quality
Every dataset in SEED includes a metadata statement that describes the data. It tells you what the data is, where it came from, when it was collected, and how it was gathered.
We follow the ANZLIC Metadata Standard (from the Australian New Zealand Land Information Council). This is the national standard for spatial metadata in Australia and New Zealand. It keeps our metadata consistent and comparable across agencies and systems.
Each dataset also comes with a data quality statement (DQS). This tells you how well the data suits a particular task.
The team that owns the dataset (the data custodians) write both statements. Together, these statements help you decide whether a dataset meets your needs before you use it.
For more information, see:
Environmental categories
Each SEED dataset is related to a Geospatial Category, based on the ISO19115 Topic Categories used by ANZLIC. Using common category terms makes it easier to find the data you need between other sources.
You can filter all datasets by environmental category using the 'Search and download data' dataset catalogue filters.
SEED environmental categories
The following list of categories is defined by ISO19115 topic categories. Not all of these are related to the environment and so may not be currently used in SEED.
| Category | Description |
|---|---|
| Biota | Flora and/or fauna in the natural environment. Examples: wildlife, vegetation, biological sciences, ecology, wilderness, sea life, wetlands, habitat. |
| Boundaries | Legal land descriptions, such as political and administrative boundaries. |
| Climatology, Meteorology, Atmosphere | Processes and phenomena of the atmosphere – or ‘weather and climate’. Examples: cloud cover, weather, climate, atmospheric conditions, climate change and precipitation. |
| Economy | Economic activities, conditions and employment. Examples: production, labour, revenue, commerce, industry, tourism and ecotourism, forestry, fisheries, commercial or subsistence hunting, exploration and exploitation of resources such as minerals, oil and gas. |
| Elevation | Height above or below sea level. Examples: altitude, bathymetry, digital elevation models, slope. |
| Environment | Data concerned with environmental resources, protection and conservation. Examples: environmental pollution, waste storage and treatment, environmental impact assessment, monitoring environmental risk, nature reserves and landscape. |
| Farming | Rearing of animals and/or cultivation of plants. Examples: agriculture, irrigation, aquaculture, plantations, herding, pests and diseases affecting crops and livestock. |
| Geoscientific Information | Information pertaining to earth sciences. Examples: geophysical features and processes, geology, minerals, sciences dealing with the composition, structure and origin of the earth's rocks, risks of earthquakes, volcanic activity, landslides, gravity information, soils, permafrost, hydrogeology and erosion. |
| Health | Health, health services, human ecology, and safety. Examples: disease and illness, factors affecting health, hygiene, substance abuse, mental and physical health, health services. |
| Imagery, Basemaps, Earthcover | Base maps. Examples: land cover, topographic maps, imagery, unclassified images, annotation. |
| Inland Waters | Inland water features, drainage systems and their characteristics. Examples: rivers and glaciers, salt lakes, water utilisation plans, dams, currents, floods, water quality, hydrographic charts. |
| Intelligence, Military | Military bases, structures, activities. Examples: barracks, training grounds, military transportation, information collection. |
| Location | Positional information and services. Examples: addresses, geodetic (refers to the science of measurement of the earth) networks, control points, postal zones and services, place names. |
| Oceans | Features and characteristics of salt water bodies (excluding inland waters). Examples: tides, tidal waves, coastal information, reefs. |
| Planning Cadastre | Information that is used to determine appropriate actions for future use of land. Examples: land use maps, zoning maps, cadastral surveys, land ownership. |
| Society | Characteristics of society and cultures. Examples: settlements, anthropology, archaeology, education, traditional beliefs, manners and customs, demographic data, recreational areas and activities, social impact assessments, crime and justice, census information. |
| Structure | Man-made construction. Examples: buildings, museums, churches, factories, housing, monuments, shops, towers. |
| Transportation | Means and aids for conveying persons and/or goods. Examples: roads, airports/airstrips, shipping routes, tunnels, nautical charts, vehicle or vessel location, aeronautical charts, railways. |
| Utilities, communication | Energy, water and waste systems and communications infrastructure and services. Examples: hydroelectricity, geothermal, solar and nuclear sources of energy, water purification and distribution, sewage collection and disposal, electricity and gas distribution, data communication, telecommunication, radio. |
Licensing and reuse
Most data on SEED is free to use under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0). This is an open license with conditions to reuse data.
Under CC BY 4.0 licence, you can:
- Copy and share data
- Use it for research, analysis and other purposes, and
- Adapt or build on it, including for commercial purposes.
When you use SEED data, you must:
- Give clear and accurate credit
- Link to the licence where needed
- Say whether you changed the data, and
- Remove rules that stop others from using it.
Check the dataset’s metadata statement to see which Creative Commons licence applies.
NSW Government Open Data Policy
The NSW Government Open Data Policy supports responsible data sharing to create public value. It sets clear expectations for how agencies collect, manage and release data:
| Transparency of government actions | We publish environmental data openly. This supports informed decisions and public trust. |
| Accessibility of government information | We share data in formats that are easy to use, so more communities, researchers and local governments can use environmental insights. |
| Responsiveness to community needs | We work with local councils, agencies and the public to keep our data relevant and usable. |
| Accountability and transparency | Open data helps people hold agencies accountable for how they care for the environment. |
| Proactive and reactive access to information | We follow the GIPA Act to make government data available both on request and by default. |
| Public participation | We help people take part in environmental policy and planning through open data and shared platforms. |
FAIR principles
The FAIR principles are an international framework for sharing data. FAIR stands for Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable. At SEED, this means:
| Findable | Rich metadata and search tools make datasets easy to find |
| Accessible information | Data is online and in formats that are easy to find and use |
| Interoperable formats | Data uses standard formats that work with other platforms and tools |
| Reusable | Datasets come with clear notes and licensing that let you reuse them with confidence |
CARE Principles (for Indigenous Data Governance)
The CARE Principles focus on the rights and interests of Indigenous peoples in their data. CARE stands for:
- Collective benefit: data ecosystems designed and operated so Indigenous Peoples can derive benefit from the data.
- Authority to control: recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ rights and interests in Indigenous data and their authority to control it.
- Responsibility: greater accountability and transparency from those working with Indigenous data.
- Ethics: prioritising Indigenous Peoples’ rights and wellbeing throughout the data lifecycle.
We are looking at how the CARE Principles shape our future approach to Indigenous data. We will partner with Aboriginal stakeholders to explore how the principles could apply to SEED’s governance, information management and service design.
For more information, visit The CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance — Global Indigenous Data Alliance.
A note on language
We use 'Indigenous' here to reflect the global CARE Principles. We recognise that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are distinct. Communities and individuals may prefer more specific terms.