Identifying erosion hazard hot spots helps focus field activities: remote monitoring of fractional ground cover in Western Australia’s grainbelt
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publication Date
6-2023
Conference Title
2023 Soil Science Australia Annual Conference
Place of Publication
Darwin
Keywords
erosion, remote monitoring, grainbelt, soil sustainability
Disciplines
Soil Science
Abstract
The proportion and perenniality of vegetative groundcover significantly affects biodiversity and ecosystem services of arable land. Insufficient groundcover is the dominant factor contributing to wind erosion. In Western Australia, the amount of extant groundcover is rated to assess wind erosion hazard according to national standards, with < 30 % cover being extreme hazard, < 50% cover being erodible, and ≥ 50% cover being regarded as safe.
This study used fractional groundcover products from Landsat satellite imagery to identify landscapes most at risk in the Western Australian grainbelt. Imagery was processed with custom python scripts to calculate the proportion of arable land in each groundcover class for every season over 11 years. Individual seasons were compared with the preceding 10-year seasonal median to evaluate relative hazard.
Recommended Citation
Laycock, J,
Middleton, N,
Holmes, K,
Galloway, P,
Moore, G A,
and
Overheu, T.
(2023), Identifying erosion hazard hot spots helps focus field activities: remote monitoring of fractional ground cover in Western Australia’s grainbelt, 2023 Soil Science Australia Annual Conference, Darwin, pp.22-22.
https://library.dpird.wa.gov.au/conf_papers/65
