Incentivos a la Formalización

monitoring and management

Phinn, S.R, Scarth, P., Witte, CV., Tindall, D., Danaher, T., Hicks, R., Gill, T., Mellor, A. and Johansen, K. Australia’s state governments have Acts of Parliament to enable the protection and sustainable use of our resources, and one of the most important of these Acts across all six States and Territories is the Native Vegetation Act and its variants. These control which areas can and cannot be cleared to ensure we have sufficient vegetation diversity and cover for a broad range of ecosystem services. Each Act has legislation that requires the States and Territories to map on a regular basis, usually every one or five years, the extent of native vegetation and its structural properties (e.g. vegetation cover, height and biomass). They are also required to map changes in these properties for legally binding reports. Satellite image data are the only way to deliver these products. This paper explains the approaches that have developed across Australia to deliver these essential products from EO data. By using the scientifically sound approaches outlined below States and Territories have a widely useable spatial data set to meet legislated mapping requirements from products that are both scientifically and legally defensible. As a result the data are used for a range of compliance monitoring and assessment activities , including detection of illegal clearing and assessing the impacts of changes in grazing and other farming policies, with the net result that Australia’s States and Territories are able to better manage our resources strategically.

The legislated monitoring and on-ground management of Australia’s environmental resources, atmosphere, vegetation, soils, water bodies and benthos, as noted above, are conducted by state government agencies. State agencies are Australia’s largest and longest term users of satellite EO data, as well as our largest employers of EO specialists. This paper outlines a specific range of legislated activities in Australia that are fully supported by EO data, for baseline mapping, monitoring and modelling. Mapping the percentage of a pixel covered by vegetation and its change on an annual basis is a common legislated requirement across Australia’s states. The Landsat image archive and extensive field data are used with an established and secure processing system to deliver annually updated maps of vegetation cover and their change at state and national levels. The project driving these applications has been established for over 20 years (see www.qld.gov.au/environment/land/ Vegetation/mapping/slats). A slightly different approach has been taken to continental scale vegetation cover mapping, with national research infrastructure used to link state collections of field surveys of vegetation cover, to development of a common method for processing and delivery at national scales.

Problem

Woody vegetation cover mapping is a basis for vegetation mapping and monitoring across several states and nationally. The mapping of woody vegetation cover is linked to several state vegetation management acts and is required on an annual basis (Figure 1). Accurate mapping must work from semi-arid grassland, across savannah woodland, temperate woodlands, to coastal forest and rainforest

Applications of Satellite Earth Observations 61 and cannot be done from field or aerial photography. Landsat Thematic Mapper and field based approaches were developed in 1990s in association with vegetation dependent industries in one state (Queensland), which also paralleled development of national land use maps. As the method and access to Landsat data improved, mapping went from once every five years to annual in 2000, and then moved to use the full Landsat TM/ETM+ archive when it was made available by USGS. The method was initiated in Queensland, and has since been adopted/modified in New South Wales , Northern Territory and Tasmania, and most recently to a more advanced nationally applicable product – persistent green vegetation fraction and fractional cover (Figure 2). These products are used across state governments for a range of applications, including compliance assessment for vegetation clearing permits, recognised as global best practice (Evidence from Earth Observation Satellites. Emerging Legal Issues, December 2012, Brill / Martinus Nijhoff , ISBN 978-9004194434, 498p (Ray Purdy, editor With Denise Leung)).

Fig 1: The Statewide Land Cover and Trees Study, woody foliage projective cover mapping results (https://publications.qld.gov.au/storage/f/2014-09-11T02%3A11%3A13.856Z/slats-report-2011-12.pdf)

Fig 2: National persistent green vegetation fraction product, base Landsat scenes and product. (www.auscover.org.au/xwiki/bin/view/Product+pages/Persistent+Green-Vegetation+Fraction)

62 Applications of Satellite Earth Observations

Satellite Earth Observation Data Application

The application addressed is public use: Supporting an informed and secure society

The problems identified here, in mapping vegetation, were addressed by combining extensive field survey programs, with extensively tested satellite image geometric and radiometric correction programs and well supported and maintained project teams to develop programs that accurately map vegetation structural properties. The approaches used are fully documented and published in peer reviewed literature, and the code, approaches and data are available through publicly accessible portals.

The foliage projective cover data sets are available from:

www.qld.gov.au/environment/land/vegetation/mapping/slats/ and qldspatial.information.qld.gov.au/catalogue/custom/index.page

The national vegetation fractional cover and persistent green vegetation fraction data, supporting documentation and field calibration data are available from: www.auscover.org.au/data/product-list

Value Chain

The woody fractional cover and other fractional cover products are produced using the USGS Landsat Thematic Mapper, Enhanced Thematic Mapper and Advanced Land Imager archives and SPOT 4 and 5 data. Field data are collected by Queensland, New South Wales, Victorian, Tasmanian and Northern Territory Governments. Data are used by all state agencies, general public, land-holders, research agencies and private companies.

Applications of Satellite Earth Observations 63

More Information

For more information, please feel free to contact: Professor Stuart Phinn

School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management, Biophysical Remote Sensing Group The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 4072

Ph: 61-7-33656526, Mobile: 0401 012 996, Email: [email protected] Web-pages: www.gpem.uq.edu.au/jrsrp, www.auscover.org.au

64 Applications of Satellite Earth Observations