The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) has launched its Field measurement of fractional ground cover: A technical handbook supporting ground cover monitoring for Australia report.

 

“The handbook will be used to establish a national network of ground cover sites in landscapes managed for grazing and broadacre cropping, and these sites will enable monitoring of ground cover over the entire country by satellite,” ABARES acting Deputy Executive Director, Dr Terry Sheales, said at the report’s launch.

 

“The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry has funded the production of the handbook through the Ground Cover Monitoring for Australia project, to enable nationally consistent fractional ground cover data collection.”

 

The handbook provides a national standard for the field measurement of fractional ground cover. Fractional ground cover classifies ground cover into photosynthetic (green) vegetation, non-photosynthetic (brown) vegetation, and bare soil. The handbook supports the establishment of a national network of sites to improve medium-scale remotely sensed ground cover data. 

 

 

The field measurement methods have been modified from the Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Management's state-wide land and trees survey methods and have been trialed and endorsed by all states and territories at an Australian Collaborative Land Use and Management Program (ACLUMP) meeting in April 2011.

 

The full report can be found here