Ground Cover Monitoring for Australia
Nationally consistent and regularly updated ground cover information is critical for assessment of environmental targets related to soil erosion and land management in Australia.
The 'Ground Cover Monitoring for Australia' project aims to develop and implement a nationally agreed, reliable and cost-effective basis for measuring and mapping ground cover using satellite imagery, and produce regular updates of ground cover conditions across Australia. The 'Ground Cover Monitoring for Australia' project is informed by work on ground cover by ACLUMP partners
'Ground cover monitoring for Australia' products available as at April 2015:
Fractional (ground) cover data
- Download Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)-derived vegetation fractional cover data and Metrics from the Terrestrial Ecosystems Research Network National Computing Infrastructure TERN NCI)
- Download monthly composites of the MODIS-derived fractional cover data from TERN AusCover
- Explore ground cover information on the Monitor website - October 2014
- Assessing the effects of site heterogeneity and soil properties when unmixing photosynthetic vegetation, non-photosynthetic vegetation and bare soil fractions from Landsat and MODIS data - Remote Sensing of Environment 161 (2015), 12-26
- Evaluation of the MODIS-based vegetation fractional cover product - April 2012 PDF
[3.3 MB]
National network of reference sites
- Australian ground cover reference sites database package 2014 on the ABARES publications page - September 2014
- Australian ground cover reference sites database on TERN Auscover
- Sampling strategy - March 2013 PDF [2.2 MB]
- Technical handbook describing agreed national standards for the field measurement of fractional ground cover to support remote sensing products - November 2011
- Forms for entry of fractional cover field data site description form Excel [656 KB], transect form Excel [262 KB, PDF [959 KB]
Progress reports
- Final project report to June 2013 - May 2014
- Progress report July 2011 to June 2012 - August 2013
- Project progress report to June 2011- May 2012 PDF [2.1 MB]
Workshops and conferences
- Poster describing version 3 ground cover algorithm - Presented at "Frontiers in Earth Observation for Land System Science" Berlin, March 2014 PDF [2.8 MB]
- Poster on ground cover products - Presented at "Land transformations: Between global challenges and local realities" Berlin, March 2014 PDF [2.4 MB]
- Poster on ground cover remote sensing methods - Presented at the Terrestrial Ecosystems Research Network symposium February 2013 PDF [3 MB]
- Progress in national ground cover monitoring for Australian agriculture from the Joint Australian and New Zealand Soil Science Conference- December 2012 DOC
[192 KB - Workshop proceedings from November 2009 Ground cover monitoring for Australia - Establishing a nationally coordinated approach to ground cover mapping
Factsheets
- Ground cover monitoring for Australia factsheet - November 2012
- Ground cover monitoring for Australia factsheet - 2010 PDF [681 KB]
Figure shows the locations of field sites to June 2014