Current Research and Future Directions
Current research projects to provide more efficient methods for mapping land use or to capture spatial information on specific land uses include:
- Developing and implementing a methodology for frequent monitoring of broadacre cropping areas using MODIS satellite imagery. Expected products from this work include spatial information on crop/pasture rotations and cropping and planting times.
- Mapping bananas in North Queensland (following Cyclone Larry) using high resolution SPOT 5 satellite imagery. This project is undertaken in partnership with the University of Queensland and the Australian Banana Growers Industry and is comparing a manual mapping approach with object-based segmentation and classification (using eCognition).
- Developing methods for mapping pineapples using object-based segmentation and classification software (eCognition), and SPOT 5 imagery. This work is part of a Masters in Geographical Information Science at the University of New England, Armidale.
QLUMP staff are contributing to the development of a national framework for land management practices. This development is being coordinated by the Bureau of Rural Sciences in Canberra and involves agencies in all states and territories. The objectives are to:
- identify key land management practice information needs for dryland and irrigated agriculture,
- identify priority data collections and information gaps, and
- develop principles for an agreed national framework for land management practice information collection and collation.
Last updated: 31 July 2008