No. 20 Lands of Bougainville and Buka Islands, Territory of Papua and New Guinea

Abstract

The survey covered an area of 9,000 km² with an altitude range from sea level to 2,600 m.

The report provides details of the 40 land systems with 153 land units from 26 km² to 920 km². In an indication of developing concepts in land classification, most are simple land units based on individual elements of landforms such as slopes rather than complex units based on relations between several landform elements.

Each land system has a general description of geology, geomorphology and terrain parameters, a thumbnail showing its distribution, and information on population, land use and forest potential. The area, landform, soil, vegetation and land capability class is recorded for each land unit and their positions are shown on block diagrams.

Individual disciplinary chapters describe:

1. Climate — principal climatic features and controls and characteristics of rainfall, evaporation and other elements
2. Geology — land systems according to geological age, stratigraphy and lithology
3. Geomorphology — geomorphic processes, their relation to land systems; and diagnostic features of major geomorphic landscape categories
4. errain — introduces parametric description of landscapes, and maps the distribution of relief, slope, grain-size and plan-profile categories
5. Pedology — classification, characteristics, distribution and area of soils, and area of soils according to an engineering soil classification
6. Vegetation — methods and classification of natural and anthropogenic vegetation types and their distribution across land systems
7. Forest Resources — access categories for forestry purposes, forest types and their distribution, area, access categories and stocking rates by land system
8. Population and Land Use — characteristics of the population and location of language groups, mapped relationships between land use and land form, population and land systems
9. Land Capability — capability classes and their distribution, and percentage area in each land system

Map 1 — Bougainville and Buka Islands, Territory of Papua and New Guinea, Land Systems by PC Heyligers, JR McAlpine, JC Saunders, RM Scott and JG Speight. Scale 1:300,000. With inset: Physical Features by JG Speight. Scale 1:880,000. CSIRO Land Research Series No. 20, 1967.

Map 2 — Bougainville and Buka Islands, Territory of Papua and New Guinea. Three maps on sheet, each 1:600,000: Land Use and Population by RJ McAlpine; Land Use Capability by RM Scott; Forest Types by JC Saunders. With inset: Population Distribution. CSIRO Land Research Series No. 20, 1967.

Map 3 — Bougainville and Buka Islands, Territory of Papua and New Guinea. Three maps on sheet, each scale 1:600,000: Soils by RM Scott; Generalized Geology by JG Speight; Major Environments by PC Heyligers. CSIRO Land Research Series No. 20, 1967.

Editor's Note: The population of 62,500 at the time of the survey has has approximately trebled in 2011.