Regional Land Condition and Trend Assessment in Tropical Savannas

Karfs, R., Applegate, R., Fisher, R., Lynch, D., Mullin, D., Novelly, P., Peel, L., Richardson, K., Thomas, P. and Wallace, J.

The Audit Rangeland Monitoring Implementation project has demonstrated how to provide information on landscape change by applying a remote sensing technique for monitoring tropical savannas using historical satellite data. Multi temporal sequences of calibrated Landsat data were used to summarise landscape change in four different bioregions across Australia's tropical savannas. By combining Landsat time-series data with land resource and cadastral data, an interpretation of landscape change and land condition over broad areas was developed. Groundtruthing, long-term data collection at monitoring sites and collation of local knowledge are required to refine the satellite-based interpretation, and determine reasons for change.

The main output from the project is landscape change and condition summary products produced at a range of spatial scales as maps and graphs. These show change in vegetative cover stratified by land type, areas where the change in cover has been less or more than neighbouring areas, and change in cover within the context of historical trend. The summary products have a strong communication value as a basis for discussing issues that face rangeland managers.

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