A spring is a hydrogeological feature by which groundwater discharges naturally to the land or cave surface. This includes springs with permanent and non-permanent (i.e. intermittent or ephemeral) saturation regimes, dynamic or static geographic locations, and diffuse or point source geographic locations. The Queensland Springs Database provides a comprehensive catalogue of springs with a permanently saturated saturation regime that have fixed locations in Queensland and any associated surface expression groundwater dependent ecosystems. This precludes soaks that are not permanent, bores (because they are not natural), wells that do not have a surface expression of groundwater, and groundwater discharge along a stream-bed that is not in a fixed location. The springs dataset also includes other types of springs (e.g. springs with a non-permanent or unsaturated saturation regime), however, information on these types of springs may be limited. Information is available including location, grouping (e.g. complex and supergroup), associated regional ecosystem, source aquifer, conservation rankings, physical properties, general morphology, water chemistry (incomplete dataset), floristic composition, disturbance, faunal composition, survey effort, etc.
