Rural Industries Research & Development Corporation

Research Compendium 1993 - 1994

Research Project

HIGH RESOLUTION SPOT SATELLITE IMAGERY FOR PREPARING PROPERTY MANAGEMENT BASE MAPS

Objective

To determine if high resolution SPOT digital satellite imagery could be used as an economic substitute for the currently produced, manually assembled, aerial photography, property management plan (PMP) base maps.

Background

Queensland Department of Primary Industries (DPI) currently encourages land holders to prepare their own land management plans. Preparation of these plans ensures that both land conservation factors and agronomic factors are considered when deciding how to manage agricultural land. Land holders are assisted with the preparation of Property Management Plans by attending PMP Workshops run by DPI. A PMP kit is supplied at a nominal charge to land holders attending these workshops, and a base map of the land holder's property is included in the kit.

Research

The suitability of SPOT panchromatic satellite imagery for use as a property management planning mapping base for Central Queensland grazing and cropping properties at scales of between 1:10,000 and 1:40,000 was evaluated. In addition, panchromatic and multispectral SPOT imagery were compared and evaluated for use in cropping property management.

The grazing and cropping properties selected for this evaluation project were chosen in consultation with DPI field staff from Rockhampton and Emerald. 'Namoi Hills' (located near the town of Dingo) was selected as the grazing property, and 'Mount Lowe' (located near the town of Capella) was selected as the cropping property.

Outcome

It was concluded that use of SPOT panchromatic imagery was very practicable for preparing grazing property base maps, where property size if 4000 hectares or larger and the maps are produced at scales of 1:20,000 or smaller. Using SPOT panchromatic data as an alternative to the current air photo mosaic technique reduces the overall cost of producing grazing property PMP base maps.

Production of base maps utilising satellite imagery for properties less than 4000 hectares at scales larger than about 1:20,000 produced images that were too 'blocky' for landholders to use effectively.

It was concluded that routine use of SPOT imagery for preparing typical cropping property base maps was not practicable due to the small property size and the need for large scale (>20 000) mapping. However, where cropping properties were large (>4000 ha) SPOT panchromatic imagery could be used as an alternative to aerial photography as the mapping scale would be 1:20 000 or smaller.

It was concluded that mapping costs using SPOT Panchromatic imagery were very similar to the costs of producing aerial photograph mosaics. There is, however, a substantial saving that can be made in the data purchase prices with SPOT imagery.

RIRDC Project No: DAQ-150A

RESEARCHER: Ken Adsett Peter Rey

PHONE: 079 36 0226 079 30 9344

Last updated: 10 October 1996
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