An understanding of land use and land use change is essential for many applications including natural resource management, biodiversity conservation, catchment and estuary management and water quality modelling, transport network planning, urban planning and development, emergency response planning and management, agricultural resource planning and climate change modelling. Knowledge of land use and land use change enables provision of better services to ensure NSW communities will thrive.

Land use is classified according to the national standards established by the Australian Collaborative Land Use and Management Program - ACLUMP .

Land use maps contain some known limitations, for example, in some areas mapping has occurred at a larger scale due to resource constraints, resulting in less accurate land use information.

Currently, updates to the map are performed on an ad-hoc basis as project funding becomes available.