Remote sensing of wetland vegetation degradation

Kobryn, H.T.ORCID: 0000-0003-1004-7593, Strehlow, K. and Froend, R.H. (1992) Remote sensing of wetland vegetation degradation. School of Environmental Science, Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia.

Abstract

The suitability of Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) data in mapping vegetation and detecting vegetation degradation was assessed. Four TM images from February 1991, September 1990, March 1990 and August 1989, of an area west of Esperance, Western Australia, were examined to detect remnant vegetation degradation caused by waterlogging, flooding, fires and salinization. Moreover, several change detection techniques were tested to determine their usefulness in analysing TM data.

Overall, the high classification accuracy obtained using a single and a multitemporal data set, indicate that Landsat TM data is suitable for detecting plant damage. However, the linear and visual change detection techniques and the vegetation indices tested, were found to be only of a limited use in examining changes in Western Australian remnant vegetation.

Mapping of vegetation degradation using more powerful software and hardware is still continuing, and is due to be completed in November 1993 as a part of an honours project at Murdoch University.

Item Type:	Report
Murdoch Affiliation:	School of Environmental Science
Series Name:	Report to Water Authority of Western Australia and Department of Conservation and Land Management
Publisher:	School of Environmental Science, Murdoch University
URI:	http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/23047

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