Mapping forest cover, Kimberley Region of Western Australia

Abstract

Summary About half the total forest area of Australia lies north of the Tropic of Capricorn. Improved information about northern forest and woodlands is required for national level statistics, forest policy development, reserve system planning and for ongoing management by relevant State and Territory agencies. NORFOR, an initiative of National Forest Inventory (NFI), addresses this need. It involves a partnership between Western Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland in the development of a common system for processing of satellite remote sensing data to achieve a consistent product that reliably details the extent of forest cover and broad forest types across northern Australia. For the purpose of the project three locations across northern Australia were selected to trial the agreed methodology: the Kimberley region of Western Australia, the Daly Basin of Northern Territory and the Einasleigh Uplands of Queensland. This paper reports on the work in the Kimberley region and describes the methodology used for acquiring ground information, satellite image production and the processing techniques to produce the forest cover map. It also considers issues associated with determination of the forest/savannah boundary and the effect of fire on the reliability of mapping.