# Grounded Data

> Grounded Data creates trustworthy, auditable and portable environmental evidence artifacts derived from land and territorial data. Built for finance, ESG, assurance and compliance workflows in Australia.

Grounded Data is an Australian initiative focused on solving a specific problem: environmental and land data relevant to rural properties is scattered across multiple government sources, inconsistently assembled and rarely auditable. Grounded Data standardises, cites and packages this data into a structured artifact called Manifest.

Grounded Data does not provide risk scores, ratings, assessments or regulatory advice. It provides evidence. The analyst, lender or consultant brings their own judgement to that evidence.

## Product

### Manifest

Manifest is the first product under Grounded Data. It is a standardised environmental evidence artifact for a rural property, anchored to:

- A defined property boundary (cadastral lot/plan)
- A specific point in time (evidence date)
- Official and authoritative Australian data sources

Manifest is designed to be portable, reproducible, auditable and understandable by non-technical stakeholders.

Manifest is a package of evidence. It is not an assessment, a scoring system, a risk engine, a compliance judgement tool or a farm management platform.

### Data layers included in Manifest

- Property boundary: QSpatial cadastral layer (QLD Globe)
- Land use classification: ABARES Land Use of Australia (ALUM classification)
- Vegetation cover and NDVI time series: Digital Earth Australia (DEA), Landsat Collection 3 annual composites
- Regulated vegetation overlays: Queensland DNRM, Property Map of Assessable Vegetation (PMAV)
- Protected areas proximity: CAPAD 2024 via DCCEEW
- Climate context indicators: Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) and ABARES DroughtHub

Every data layer in a Manifest cites its source, dataset version and retrieval date.

## Regulatory context

Australia enacted mandatory climate disclosure legislation in 2024, effective January 2025. Large entities including agricultural lenders are now required to report Scope 3 financed emissions. This requires understanding the environmental profile of land used as loan collateral.

The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) is becoming the standard framework for nature-related risk disclosure. Agriculture and land use are priority sectors under TNFD. Property-level environmental evidence is the required foundation layer.

## Target audience

Primary users of Manifest are:

- Banks and agri-lenders reporting financed emissions under mandatory climate disclosure
- ESG, sustainability and assurance consultants preparing TNFD-aligned disclosures
- Credit and agri-finance brokers assembling environmental due diligence documentation
- ESG and compliance software platforms seeking an upstream property-level evidence layer

Farms and landholders are secondary beneficiaries. They typically do not seek Manifest proactively but benefit when it is requested by a lender, broker or consultant.

## Current status

Manifest is in active development. A pilot program is open to teams in agri-lending, ESG assurance and environmental due diligence who want to test the artifact against real workflows and help shape the final format.

## Contact

Grounded Data is based in Queensland, Australia.
To express interest in the pilot program or learn more: https://linkedin.com/in/YOUR-LINKEDIN-HANDLE

## URLs

- Homepage: https://groundeddata.net/
- Sample Manifest (Ridgeview Station): https://groundeddata.net/sample/manifest-ridgeview-station
- Pilot program: https://groundeddata.net/#pilot
- FAQ: https://groundeddata.net/#faq