ECHIDNA® Industry workshop
The industry workshop was run April 20th,2007 in Melbourne. Generally, the forest industry were very supportive of the technology and its application to the forest environment, however they recognised the additional work needed to be done on the software, hardware and value proposition. In particular, they were interested in what an industry version of ECHIDNA® would look like (ruggedness, portability etc) and also additional work where ECHIDNA® is compared with current inventory methods in order to assist with developing a value proposition.
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Bushfire impact on water yield
In the summer of 2002-03 an enormous forest fire burnt through a massive 700,000 ha of forests in northeast Victoria, Australia. This region supplies 38 per cent of the water that flows into the Murray-Darling River. in a country where water supplies are at a premium, it is vital to know what impact bushfires have on the water yield of major catchments. A study completed by Ensis using remote sensing techniques sheds light on this important issue.
Senior research scientist Dr Richard Benyon and Dr Neil Sims of Ensis’ remote sensing group used Landsat images of the catchment captured before and after the fires to predict the impacts on water availability over time as the forests regrow. The model suggests that, initially, the loss of forest area after the fires will reduce the total water uptake by trees and make more surface water available to streams.
Ensis scientists estimate that mean annual stream flow soon after the fires will increase by about 40 gigalitres per year. Since 40 gigalitres is roughly equivalent to Melbourne’s water requirement for a month, the increase in water flow may seem like a positive outcome of the fires. But this effect is not likely to last. As the forest regrows, and the young trees consume more water, substantial reductions in water yield from the catchment are expected over coming decades.
Richard says understanding the impact of fires on water yield from major catchments is critical to delivering security of water supply to farms and cities.
Victoria’s North east Catchment Management Authority chief executive John Riddiford acknowledges the value of this research, which provides a real capacity to predict the impact of forest fire on water yield over large areas for the first time.
“With the potential impacts of climate change, including the lower rainfall and increased risk of wildfire, it is important for catchment authorities to understand these possible impacts and to plan accordingly.”
“The methodology developed by Ensis in this study provides a basis for catchment managers to more accurately predict changes in stream flow following wildfire, not only in northeast Victoria, but elsewhere in Australia.”
Richard says long-term impacts of wildfires on water yield is very dependent on the type and condition of the forest before fires, the intensity of fires and the subsequent type, density and vigour of forest recovery.
The challenge of estimating these impacts was met by a multidisciplinary ensis team with expertise in remote sensing, plus an in-depth understanding of tree water use and species recovery after fire.
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Better information for better decisions
Forest managers are always on the lookout for better ways to obtain information and make decisions about their resource. Ensis remote sensing scientist Dr Darius Culvenor aspires to provide the means. As Group Leader for the Ensis Remote Sensing Group he is elevating forest information technologies to new heights.
After obtaining a Bachelor’s degree in Forest science, Darius completed his PhD specialising in remote sensing. The purpose of his thesis was to develop a way of assessing forest structure at the individual tree scale. The methodology allows a complete census of a forest by directly counting and measuring the crown characteristics of every visible tree from above the canopy using high spatial resolution imagery.
Darius currently works across a broad range of remote sensing technologies and applications, helping to identify strategically important areas for new technology, skills and business development. Remote sensing has many applications, however Darius sees its primary role as providing better information to reduce risk, which in turn improves economic outcomes and reduces environmental impacts.
Darius says the information in remotely sensed images can be analysed for a variety of purposes.
“Our group works with data at scales from individual trees to whole landscapes to determine the structure, physiology and condition of vegetation.”
Current activities include forest health monitoring and interpreting laser scanner data to assess forest structure. The team is also developing in-situ sensors to measure wind forces exerted on standing trees and possible relationships with wood defect development.
Research in the remote sensing group spans many areas of ensis’ research, such as forest health, nutrition, water use and wood quality. Almost all research projects involve collaborations with other ensis scientists or industry.
“It is essential to be aware of industry needs, so we can promote realistic expectations and provide viable solutions. We need to remain cutting edge, by being up to date with new technologies, in order to evaluate and then implement them,” Darius says.
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Welcome Jan Verbesselt
This January Ensis Remote Sensing group welcomed a new Post Doctoral Fellow, Jan Verbesselt to their team. Jan will be apart of the Forests and Environment business unit and based in Clayton.
Jan has recently completed his PhD, travelling all the way from Belgium to be with us. He is an expert in time series analysis of remotely sensed imagery and over the next 3 years, he will be taking a lead role in the CRC Forestry project on forest condition monitoring.
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Remote Sensing helps manage fertiliser use
Hyperspectral data captured through a sensor carried on the Earth Observer 1 satellite is being used by Ensis to map nutrients in plantation pine trees.
The satellite was launched six years ago to demonstrate the scientific feasibility of a space-borne hyperspectral instrument called Hyperion. The success of the science mission has led to the ongoing use of Hyperion imagery in commercial applications.
Ensis has completed a project with Forestry Plantations Queensland using this satellite image data to map nutrients in plantation pine trees in the south-east of the state. Ultimately the maps will enable foresters to determine what fertilisers to apply and where, helping them exercise greater control over what can be a costly and time consuming forestry management function.
Ensis remote sensing research scientist, Neil Sims, says the nutrient mapping project marks a further step towards remote sensing becoming a strategic tool in forestry management.
“The objective of the nutrient project was to see if we could use hyperspectral image data to map the distribution and concentration of 12 nutrients in two species of exotic pines across plantations,” he says.
Additionally, the provision of hyperspectral images may contribute evidence for the certification of plantations. Forest certification schemes require documented proof that the forest products have been produced in line with a range of environmentally sustainable criteria.
“Hyperspectral image data contains an enormous amount of information about the objects within each pixel, which represents an area on the ground measuring 25 metres by 25 metres in the images used in this project, across the whole of the plantation,” Neil explains. "This provides much more detailed information than is available using current field-based inventory methods.”
Neil says his team is motivated by the need to be on the front foot of analysing hyperspectral data in time for the launch of next generation satellite imaging technologies over the next two to three years.
The latest project follows earlier trials of the airborne LiDAR (light detecting and ranging) and digital multispectral camera technologies. Mounted in aircraft, these instruments have been used successfully to capture a wide range of landscape and inventory data related to the Araucaria and exotic pine plantations in Queensland’s Mary Valley and Fraser Coast areas.
These airborne technologies are providing valuable information on topography, drainage features, erosion hazard, forest height and vegetation condition. The government-owned Forestry Plantations Queensland reports that successful trials of these remote sensing technologies are already delivering significant economic and operational benefits.
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