Potential Density of Domestic and Stock Rights (surface water and groundwater sources)

The Water Management Act 2000 (WM Act) establishes three categories of Basic Landholder Rights (BLR) in New South Wales: domestic and stock (D&amp;S) rights, harvestable rights, and native title rights. Among these, D&amp;S rights enable landholders to take water—without a water access licence or water use approval—from rivers, estuaries, lakes adjoining their land, or from underlying aquifers, for domestic consumption and stock watering. While these rights do not authorise the construction of water supply works without approval, they hold significant legislative priority. Under Section 5 of the WM Act, BLR, together with environmental water needs, are afforded higher priority in water sharing arrangements than most licensed entitlements, including general and high-security water access licences.

Despite their legislative priority and critical socio-economic role—particularly during periods of water scarcity—D&amp;S rights are not required to be registered, recorded, or metered. Consequently, there is limited empirical data available to quantify the extent and distribution of water take under these rights.

This dataset aims to estimate the potential density of Domestic and Stock rights along NSW rivers by analysing property data within a 400-metre buffer zone of river frontages. By spatially identifying landholdings with potential river access, this analysis provides an evidence-based approach to approximating the scale and distribution of D&amp;S rights. The findings will support improved understanding of potential water demand under BLR and contribute to ongoing policy review and water resource planning efforts across New South Wales.

The analysis involved completing spatial analysis (density-based clustering) from the NSW Land Parcel property data (GURAS) and from surface and groundwater (SEED) datasets.

The density-based clustering analysis works by detecting areas where points (centroid of each NSW property) are concentrated and where they are separated by areas that are empty or sparse. This spatial analysis tool uses unsupervised machine learning clustering algorithms which automatically detect patterns, based purely on spatial location and the distance to a specified number of neighbours. These algorithms are considered unsupervised because they do not require any training on what it means to be a cluster, the determining factor is the minimum features that determine a cluster.

The clustering density classifications are allocated to all NSW land property locations (centroids) that coincide with Surface Water (SW), that is within 400m of a regulated or unregulated named water source. They are also allocated to groundwater (GW) properties, that is any property greater than a 400m buffered area of a named water source. This spatial analysis was processed across all 36 NSW WSP’s.

The three clustering density classifications applied to both SW and GW properties are:
<ul>
<li>LOW: land parcel properties clustered by a 500 or less minimum threshold</li>
<li>MODERATE: land parcel properties clustered by a 500 or more minimum threshold</li>
<li>HIGH: land parcel properties clustered by a 5,000 or more minimum threshold</li>
</ul>

Clustering density was symbolised as follows for a meaningful visualisation:
<ul>
<li>High density potential</li>
<li>Medium density potential</li>
<li>Low density potential</li>
</ul>

The results provide an evidence-based estimate of potential D&amp;S property concentrations, supporting improved understanding of possible water demand and informing water planning and policy review processes in NSW.



Note: If you would like to ask a question, make any suggestions, or tell us how you are using this dataset, please visit the <a href="https://water-hub.seed.nsw.gov.au/thread/search">NSW Water Hub which has an online forum</a> you can join.

Tags: 400 m Buffer Zone, Basic Landholder Rights, DCCEEW - Water, DCCEEW - Water Analytics, Density-Based Clustering, Domestic and Stock Rights, Groundwater, NSW Land Parcel Data GURUS, SEED-Layer-Catalogue, Spatial Analysis, Surface Water
Organization: NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water