Landsat MSS imagery as an adjunct to aerial survey of Kangaroos
G.J.E. Hill
Australian Key Centre in Land Information studies
Department of Geographical Sciences
The university of Queensland
ST. Lucia, 4067, Australia
Abstract
The larger kangaroos have extensive geographic ranges that favour regional approaches to population survey. Consequently, aerial census techniques form the base for much of the monitoring and management programmes conducted in Australia. However, reliance in existing map products and aerial photography for conducting these surveys and interpreting the results is not wholly satisfactory. Factors such as scale and cost (for photography) and level of detail (fro maps) are severe drawbacks. Recency of data capture is often a severe draw back for both products. Satellite imagery, on the other hand, overcomes most of these problems and is well suited as the map/habitat base for aerial survey of kangaroos.
Introduction
Satellite telemetry is now routinely use in Australia to track animal movement pattern (e.g. Doig and Dyson 1988) which has made remote sensing of more direction relevance to wildlife scientist. However, it is still not possible to conduct censuses of wild life population from space. The use of satellite imagery for habitat mapping, on the other hand,. Has been established for many years (e.g. Falconer 1979, Best 1982). In some cases including (the celebrated) "Wombats detected from space" (Loffler and Magules 1980) this work has been extended to include the specific "homes" of animals as well as land cover in general. As has been the case wit many, if not most, remote sensing applications areas, however acceptance and routine use of remotely sensed data as facet of wildlife monitoring and management programmes has been slow to develop in Australia.
Landsat, multispectral scanner (MSS) imagery has been available since 1972 although Australian coverage was limited until the opening of a receiving facility at Alice Springs in late 1979. Data handling and marketing are managed by the Australian Centre for Remote Sensign (ACRES) located in Canberra. Establishment of the Landsat station, which is currently being upgraded to receive imagery fro the newer satellite sensors, led to a similar growth in the use of remote sensing in Australia. This was matched by a rapid expansion in the availability of digital image processing systems which allow the full potential of the data to be exploited.
ACRS A-2-3-2
The utility of Landsat MSS data for regional habitat inventory in Kangaroo Management was recognized in New South Wales soon after the launch of the first satellite in the Landsat series (Fox 1974). In terms of the scientific literature, though, there has been little reported us in wildlife application is Australia since these early days. By way of contract, satellite remote sensing has been accepted as a basic research tool by applied scientists in many disciplines that overlap or are closely related to wildlife ecology and management.
A research group from the university of Queensland, Commonwealth Department of primary industry and Queensland Department of Geographic information has been making regular use of Landsat MSS imagery as part of a Kangaroo monitoring programme in the Goodiwindi district of Queensland since 1983. Providing an outline of these uses and the potential of Landsat MSS imagery as supporting data for broadscale aerial survey of Kangaroos is the aim of this paper.
Figure 1. Location of the study area and landsat scene
