The application of Landsat image data to rangeland assessment and monitoring: An example from South Australia.

Abstract

The potential of Landsat image data to assess and monitor an area of semi-arid rangelands in South Australia is demonstrated. The project is a cooperative ongoing one between CSIRO and a future operational user of Landsat, the South Australian Pastoral Board, and it has as its long-term aim the development of a Land Image-Based Resource Information System (LIBRIS) for rangeland management. Three separate stages of the project are described. The fist is the integration of tenure maps with Landsat image data to permit a useful analysis and interrogation of the combined Landsat data sets. The second is the derivation of vegetation indices from Landsat data that are applicable to the semi-arid rangelands. Indices of 'cover' and of 'greenness' have been derived, but this report concen- trates on the cover index only for it can be related to soil erosion hazard/landscape stability and, as such, it represents a simple, robust vegetation-related index derived directly from Landsat. Lastly this index is used to map both cover and trend (changes in cover). Cover changes over the period 1973-1980 are detected and reported for a test region of 8300 km2. With the integration of tenure boundaries the interrogation, mapping and reporting at the individual property level is demonstrable.