Matters of state environmental significance—mapping method

Matters of state environmental significance (MSES) are a component of the biodiversity state interest that is defined under the State Planning Policy (SPP) and defined under the Environmental Offsets Regulation 2014 (Offset Regulation). MSES includes certain environmental values that are protected under Queensland legislation including the:

  • Nature Conservation Act 1992
  • Marine Parks Act 2004
  • Fisheries Act 1994
  • Environmental Protection Act 1994
  • Regional Interests Planning Act 2014
  • Vegetation Management Act 1999
  • Environmental Offsets Act 2014.

MSES mapping represents the definition for MSES under the SPP and Offset Regulation. The mapping generates more than 17 individual layers using information from data including, but not limited to:

  • regulated vegetation mapping
  • Queensland wetland mapping
  • protected areas
  • marine parks
  • fish habitat areas
  • legally secured offsets included in the ‘offsets register’.

MSES mapping methodology

The Method for mapping—matters of state environmental significance for use in land use planning and development assessment (PDF, 624.7KB) document describes the process and data layers used by the department for mapping MSES.

MSES mapping update regime

The aim is to update the latest version of MSES on a twice-yearly basis, to incorporate changes to underlying data. The MSES methodology contains notification of these updates from the previous version. Alternatively, see the SPP interactive mapping amendments for notification of previous updates.

MSES mapping data information

Available mapping and data

The MSES mapping is displayed on the SPP interactive mapping system website. Alternatively, MSES mapping can also be viewed on the Queensland Government Globe.

The GIS (Geographic Information Systems) mapping data for MSES can be accessed from the Queensland Spatial Catalogue (QSpatial). Search ‘MSES’ in the keyword search.

A report identifying MSES for a specific location can also be generated from the Environmental reports online page.

MSES mapping symbology (layer colours and styles)

The MSES mapping data sets contain all the required attribute information within them.

To view the MSES layers so that they appear similar to the SPP interactive mapping, symbology is applied.

There are two options to apply symbology: