Dataset
NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water
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Hydrologic Soil Groups (HSG) of NSW

This map provides an estimation of Hydrologic Groups of soils in NSW according to the four class system (A-D)

  • A — soils having high infiltration rates, even when thoroughly wetted and consisting chiefly of deep, well to excessively-drained sands or gravels. These soils have a high rate of water transmission and have low water run-off potential.

  • B — soils having moderate infiltration rates when thoroughly wetted and consisting chiefly of moderately deep to deep, moderately fine to moderately coarse textures. These soils have a moderate rate of water transmission.

  • C — soils having slow infiltration rates when thoroughly wetted and consisting chiefly of soils with a layer that impedes downward movement of water, or soils with moderately fine to fine texture. These soils have a slow rate of water transmission.

  • D — soils having very slow infiltration rates when thoroughly wetted and consisting chiefly of clay soils with a high swelling potential, soils with a permanent high water table, soils with a claypan or clay layer at or near the surface, and shallow soils over nearly impervious material. These soils have a very slow rate of water transmission.

The map uses the best available soils mapping coverage and was derived from a lookup table system linking a Hydrologic Group class to a particular soil type using the Great Soil Group (GSG) classification. Each dominant GSG has been assigned a Hydrologic Soil Group.

The classification is based on the United State's Hydrologic Soil Group system published within the National Engineering Handbook (2007).

Online Maps: This dataset can be viewed using eSPADE (NSW’s soil spatial viewer), which contains a suite of soil and landscape information including soil profile data. Many of these datasets have hot-linked soil reports. An alternative viewer is the SEED Map; an ideal way to see what other natural resources datasets (e.g. vegetation) are available for this map area.

Reference: Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, 2021, Hydrologic Soil Groups of NSW, Version 4.5, NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, Parramatta.

Data and Resources

Metadata Summary What is metadata?

Field Value
Language English
Edition 4.5
Purpose Support natural resource management and decision making. This Hydrologic Group product was first produced for NSW Office of Water to assist in mapping water recharge in various catchments within NSW.
Frequency of change As needed
Keywords GEOSCIENCES-Hydrogeology,SOIL,WATER-Groundwater,SOIL-Physics
Metadata Date 2012-10-19
Date of Asset Creation 2012-10-19
Date of Asset Revision 2021-10-20
Date of Asset Publication 2012-10-19
Date of Next Update 2013-11-11
License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
Equivalent Scale 250000
Vector representation
Record 1
Object type
Surface
Object count
42351
Geospatial Topic Geoscientific information
NSW Place Name NSW
Extent

Dataset extent
Temporal Coverage From 2011-12-07 - 2020-10-24
Datum GDA94 Geographic (Lat\Long)
Legal Disclaimer Read
Attribution NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water asserts the right to be attributed as author of the original material in the following manner: "© State Government of NSW and NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water 2012"