1. The Use of AVHRR NDVI in Environmental Applications Contact: Elizabeth R. McDonald ERIN Remote Sensing Coordinator Department of the Environment and Heritage

2. Policy Framework Commonwealth Programmes Using RS EPBC Act –Compliance State of the Environment Report 2006 –Indicator Reporting National Resource Management –National Matters for Target CERF (Commonwealth Environment Research Fund) BRS Climate Group –Drought Exceptional Circumstances –National Agricultural Monitoring System

3. DEH Remote Sensing Archives ERIN AVHRR NDVI - continental ‘91 – current AGO Landsat Archive – continental ’72 - 04 –Images –Image Products Other Data - ad hoc collections –MODIS –SPOT –Quickbird –Ikonos

4. ERIN AVHRR Processing  Data is supplied by DLI to ERIN as continental 14 day composites of raw satellite counts.  Calibrated using a variant of Roa and Chen (1999) using reference points from the Australian deserts.  As the gain values change over time a regression equation is fitted relating the gain values to the time since launch.  Cloud detection and masking by individual pixels through time and identified using an arbitrary threshold.

5. http://www.deh.gov.au/erin/ndvi/index.html

6. State of the Environment Reporting 1. Data Types –Medium spatial resolution data Landsat –High temporal resolution data AVHRR NDVI 2. Applications –Forest non Forest –Forested stream lengths –Urban expansion including coastal urban expansion –Mangrove mapping

7. NRM – National Matters for Target 1. Data Types –High to Medium spatial resolution data SPOT data Landsat –High temporal resolution data AVHRR NDVI 2. Applications –Forest non Forest and forested stream length –Monitoring and Trend analysis –Water Quality assessment

8. Forest Loss/Gain Spatial Extent

9. Forest Extent Through Time

10. Forest Change by Decade

11. Forest Loss/Gain Spatial Extent

12. NDVI Time Traces

13. Inland Aquatic Ecosystems Integrity River Condition * Forested Stream Length by NHT region Wetland ecosystem extent and distribution * Extent and change of regionally significant wetlands using an algorithm supplied by of Tim Danaher, QLD Dept. Natural Resources, Mines and Water (pers. Comm. 2005). Wetland ecosystem condition * Colour (turbidity index) * Transparency (light penetration) * Vegetation (presence/absence) * Vegetation (NDVI greenness)

14. Nuga Catchment

15. Nuga Catchment Surface Water 1989 September 1989

16. Nuga Catchment Surface Water 1995 March 1995 September 1994

17. Nuga Catchment Surface Water 2002 March 2002 December 2001

18. Nuga Catchment Surface Water 2004 January 2004 March 2004

21. BRS Climate Group 1. Data Types –High temporal resolution data AVHRR NDVI MODIS NDVI 2. Applications –NDVI Time traces for drought exceptional circumstances –NDVI Anomaly for the National Agricultural Monitoring System. The Anomoly algorithm is sourced from: McVicar, T.R., Briggs, P.R., King, E.A. and Raupach, M.R. (2003) A Review of Predictive Modelling from a Natural Resource Management Perspective: The Role of Remote Sensing of the Terrestrial Environment. CSIRO Land and Water Client Report to the Bureau of Rural Sciences (also available as CSIRO Earth Observation Centre Report 2003/03 and CSIRO Atmospheric Research Report 2003/31), Canberra, Australia, pp. 26. http://www.clw.csiro.au/publications/consultancy/2003/Review_Of_Remote_Sensing.pdf) http://www.clw.csiro.au/publications/consultancy/2003/Review_Of_Remote_Sensing.pdf

22. NDVI Anomaly (NDVI m – NDVI t )/(NDVI t ) NDVI m = NDVI for a particular month (eg. May 2004) NDVI t = the archive average of that month (eg May 1991 – 2004)

23. MODIS/AVHRR NDVI Comparison Comparison of AVHRR NDVI and MOD13Q1 (CSIRO, 2004) using four major land covers:forests; shrublands, grassland and croplands. In all cases MODIS was positively offset and the seasonal variation is greater Vegetation ClassR 2 Tall Forest 0.02 Low Shrubland0.41 Tussock Grassland0.82 Cereal Crop0.85 Unexplained variance limits the direct simple translation for all but basic applications.