The environmental, economic and social condition of WA, particularly in regional areas are changing rapidly due to changing pattern of land use. It is pretty obvious that the action and practices undertaken in using this resources to produce goods and services have impacted on the condition of land , vegetation and water resources. Therefore, the provision of land use information is essential for the implementation of effective assessment and management solutions for these problems.

A land use map of Western Australia, based on the Australian Land Use and Management Classification (ALUM), nationally agreed land use mapping principles and procedures are being used to assist agencies in the production of land use maps at regional and catchments scales.

A project of land use data capture in South West of Western Australia is underway. Satellite imagery and dataset containing land use information are being interpreted using image processing software in GIS and a land use type polygons are being identified. These are assigned land use classes according to ALUM (Australian Land Use and Management) Classification and a draft land use map been produced. This was field verified by visual inspection, and expert local knowledge from land extension as well as land managers.

Land use classification must be robust and sufficiently flexible to accommodate modifications to class descriptors as well as addition and removal of classes according to local mapping requirements. Independent validation is essential for a meaningful and useful land use dataset.