What is a section?
A section is defined as an impact area containing one or more environmental matters where the area is contained in:
- a single local government area (LGA); and
- a single subregion.
If the impacted area covers two or more subregions or LGAs (e.g. a linear development such as a rail line) it will need to be broken into separate sections for the purposes of reporting on impacts and offsets at a local government level.
Does the section cover a terrestrial or marine and aquatic area?
The Financial Settlement Offsets Calculator uses a slightly different calculation for environmental matters that are terrestrial and environmental matters that are marine and aquatic. For this reason the correct area needs to be selected to ensure the correct calculation is applied.
Environmental matters that are in a terrestrial area include local government matters, regional ecosystems, protected areas, connectivity, SEQ koala habitat, threatened plants, threatened animals (where the species is terrestrial or where the species inhabits both terrestrial and aquatic areas but the impact is to their habitat on land) and wetlands (except for those that are located in the marine environment).
Environmental matters that are in a marine and aquatic area include marine plants, marine parks, declared fish habitat areas, fish passage, wetlands located in the marine environment and threatened animals (where the species is aquatic or where the species inhabits both terrestrial and aquatic areas but the impact is to their habitat in water).
Identifying the correct local government area
The Queensland Spatial Catalogue (QSpatial) ( http://qldspatial.information.qld.gov.au/catalogue/custom/ ) provides free access to spatial layers including local government area boundaries. This spatial data set can found by searching "local government area boundaries – Queensland" and can be downloaded as a geodatabase (.gdb), shapefile (.shp), Google Earth KML (.kmz) and MapInfo TAB (.tab).
Alternatively, Environmental Reports Online – MSES Report ( https://apps.des.qld.gov.au/report-request/environment/ ) can be used in the absence of a spatial mapping program. Page 4 of this report provides a summary table that details the LGA(s) in the location of interest.
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