SLATS land cover change reports
The Land cover change in Queensland—Statewide Landcover and Trees Study 2008–09 report (PDF, 1.8M)* (SLATS report) provides statistics on tree clearing rates in Queensland. It covers the second full annual period since the Queensland Government ended broadscale remnant clearing on 31 December 2006.
The 2008–09 figures represent the lowest annual rate of clearing since the Statewide Landcover and Trees Study began in 1988.
Clearing rates for the 2008–09 period were 99 940 hectares per year (ha/yr). This demonstrates a decrease of 19 per cent from the 2007–08 clearing rate of 123 000 ha/yr, and a total decrease of 67 per cent since 31 December 2006.
The supplementary report— Analysis of Woody Vegetation Clearing Rates in Queensland (PDF, 234K)* —provides a breakdown of all clearing trends identified in the 2008–09 SLATS report.
For example, the government’s commitment to end broadscale clearing included a goal to reduce clearing-related greenhouse gas emissions by 20–25 mega tonnes (Mt) per year.
The supplementary report shows a significant reduction in the rate of emissions from clearing since that commitment was made in 2003, down from 60 Mt per year to approximately 17 Mt per year—a total decrease of more than 43 Mt, or 72 per cent.
The analysis also indicates the majority of all reported clearing was likely to be for routine activities including clearing for fire breaks, fencing, roads and infrastructure, and for permitted activities such as fodder harvesting.
Regional land cover change reports
- Burnett-Mary (PDF, 458K)*
- Cape York (PDF, 388K)*
- Condamine (PDF, 425K)*
- Desert Channels (PDF, 397K)*
- Fitzroy (PDF, 446K)*
- Northern Gulf (PDF, 350K)*
- North Queensland Dry Tropics (PDF, 414K)*
- Reef Catchments (PDF, 418K)*
- South East Queensland (PDF, 449K)*
- Southern Gulf (PDF, 396K)*
- South West (PDF, 421K)*
- Terrain (PDF, 422K)*
- Queensland Murray-Darling Committee (PDF, 382K)*
Previous years' reports
Previous years' SLATS land cover change reports are also available for download.
Scientific papers
Armston, J.D., Danaher, T.J., and Collett, L.J. (2004). A regression approach for mapping woody Foliage Projective Cover in Queensland with Landsat data (PDF, 308K)*. In: Proceedings of the 12th Australasian Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Conference, Fremantle, Australia, Oct 2004.
Armston, J.D., Danaher, T.J., Goulevitch, B.M., and Byrne, M.I. Geometric correction of Landsat MSS, TM, AND ETM+ imagery for mapping of woody vegetation cover and change detection in Queensland (PDF, 576K)*. Proceedings of the 11th Australasian Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Conference, Brisbane, Australia, September 2002.
Armston, J.D., Phinn, S.R., Scarth, P.F. and Danaher, T.J. (2004). Analysis of Multiangle Imaging Spectro-Radiometer (MISR) measurements in the Queensland Southern Brigalow Belt (PDF, 531K)*. In: Proceedings of the 12th Australasian Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Conference, Fremantle, Australia, Oct 2004.
Danaher, T.J. An empirical BRDF correction for Landsat TM and ETM+ imagery (PDF, 559K)*. Proceedings of the 11th Australasian Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Conference, Brisbane, Australia, September 2002.
Danaher, T.J., Armston, J.D., and Collett, L. (2004). A regression model approach for mapping woody Foliage Projective Cover using Landsat imagery in Queensland, Australia (PDF, 198K)*. In: Proceedings IGARSS 2004, Anchorage, Alaska, Aug 2004.
de Vries, C., Danaher, T.J., and Scarth, P.F. (2004). Calibration of multiple Landsat sensors based on pseudo-invariant target sites in western Queensland, Australia (PDF, 124K)*. In: Proceedings IGARSS 2004, Anchorage, Alaska, Aug 2004.
Goulevitch, B.M., Danaher, T.J, Stewart, A.J., Harris, D.P., and Lawrence, L.J. Mapping woody vegetation cover over the state of Queensland using Landsat TM and ETM+ imagery (PDF, 2.2M)*. Proceedings of the 11th Australasian Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Conference, Brisbane, Australia, September 2002.
Wedderburn-Bisshop, G.R., Walls, J., Senerath, U.G., and Stewart, A.J. Methodology for mapping change in woody landcover in Queensland from 1999 to 2001 using Landsat ETM+ (PDF, 1.2M)*. Proceedings of the 11th Australasian Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Conference, Brisbane, Australia, September 2002.
Danaher, T., Xiaoliang, W., and Campbell, N. 2001. Bi-directional reflectance distribution function approaches to radiometric calibration of Landsat ETM+ imagery (PDF, 56K)*. IGARSS 01, Proceedings of the 2001 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, July 2001, Sydney, Australia.
The Statewide Landcover and Trees Study (SLATS) - Monitoring Land Cover Change and Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Queensland (PDF, 100K)*. Tim J. Danaher, Gerard R. Wedderburn-Bisshop, Lazaros E Kastanis, John O. Carter. In: Proceedings of the 9th Australasian Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Conference, Sydney, Australia, July 1998.
The Statewide Landcover and Trees Study (SLATS) - Monitoring Land Cover Change and Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Queensland (PDF, 23K)*. Bruce M. Goulevitch, Tim J. Danaher, Jim W. Walls. In: Proceedings of IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, Hamburg, June 1999.
The Application of Large-ScaleVideo and Laser Altimetry to Forest Inventory (PDF, 93K)*. Philip Tickle, Christine Witte, Tim Danaher, Kirsten Jones. In: Proceedings of the 9th Australasian Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Conference, Sydney, Australia, July 1998.
Development of Integrated Products for Tree Management Planning (PDF, 100K)*. Jim Walls, Lazaros Kastanis, Jo Plunkett. In: Proceedings of the 9th Australasian Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Conference, Sydney, Australia, July 1998.
SLATS Radiometric Correction: a semi-automated, multi-stage process for the standardisation of temporal and spaial radiometric differences (PDF, 547K)*. Lisa J. Collett, Bruce M Goulevitc, Tim J. Danaher. In: Proceedings of the 9th Australasian Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Conference, Sydney, Australia, July 1998.
Mapping Woody Vegetation Cover over the State of Queensland using Landsat TM Imagery (PDF, 3.4M)*. Cheryl A. Kuhnell, Bruce M. Goulevitch, Tim J. Danaher and David P. Harris. In: Proceedings of the 9th Australasian Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Conference, Sydney, Australia, July 1998.
* Requires Adobe Reader
Last updated 25 January 2010