Northern Territory. Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Environment. Conservation & Natural Resources Group,
Collection
E-Publications,
E-Books,
PublicationNT,
Report No ; 24/2002,
Date
2002-12,
Abstract
Monitoring land is integral to management and enforcement activities associated with land clearing practices. For the purpose of this report, clearing is defined as all areas here �native� vegetation has undergone any land cover change that is detectable at a scale 1ha or greater. 503,727 ha or 0.37% of the NT was estimated as having been cleared, based on multiple sources including: Landsat satellite data, historical pastoral reports and estimations of road, rail, and gas pipeline easements. Specific figures and break-down of clearing by tenure type have been generated using Landsat data for: Darwin, Palmerston, East Arm Region, Coomalie Shire, Litchfield Shire, Mary River Catchment, Daly Basin (biogeographic region), Tiwi Islands, and the Ti-Tree Catchment. In a more comprehensive assessment, historical satellite data has been used to calculate figures for Litchfield Shire since 1977. Most clearing has occurred in the Daly Basin and Litchfield Shire. A brief summary of the statistics for these two regions are: The Daly Basin -193,655 ha or 9.3% of the region cleared; - 63% of clearing has occurred on Pastoral Lease Tenures, 29% on Freehold land, with the remaining 8% distributed between all other tenures. - Majority of Pastoral Lease clearing occurred prior to 1990, on Tipperary Station. Litchfield Shire - 44,820 ha or 14.59% of the Shire cleared; - 68% of clearing has occurred on Freehold land, 11% on Vacant Crown Land, and 7% on unclassified tenure that is generally attributed to infrastructure development, 5% on Crown Lease Term Tenure, 5% on Pastoral Lease Tenure, and the remaining 4% distributed between all other tenures. - Clearing rates of 380-500 ha/year have been calculated. Exceptions are found in the 1990-1995 time period, with a low of 208 ha/year and 1995-2000 time period where the rate peaked at 1144 ha/year. -Increased clearing between 1995-2000 is directly correlated with horticultural productivity for the same time period where production increased from $21.4 to $55.7 million in the Darwin region. Future directions of clearing assessment will include the finalisation of detailed clearing figures across the Northern Territory. Reporting will be broadly based on biogeographic regions and areas where future agricultural development is most likely to occur. Further refinement of clearing assessment techniques will include the investigation of rapid assessment technique using MODIS satellite data.,
Notes
Made available via the Publications (Legal Deposit) Act 2004 (NT),
Table of contents
1: BACKGROUND -- 1.1 Vegetation Monitoring -- 1.2 Historical clearing in the Northern Territory -- 1.3 Current Clearing regulations -- 2: METHODS -- 2.1 Data Acquisition -- 2.2 Satellite Image Analysis -- Pre-Processing -- Change Detection -- Baseline Assessment -- Accuracy Assessment -- 3: RESULTS --
3.1 Land Clearing in the Northern Territory -- 3.2 Litchfield Case Study -- 4: FUTURE DIRECTIONS -- REFERENCES -- APPENDIX I Historical clearing -- APPENDIX II Land Administration Tenure Types -- APPENDIX III Interim Biogeographic Regions of the Northern Territory,
Language
English,
Subject
Clearing of land -- Environmental aspects -- Northern Territory,
Land Clearing,
Daly Basin,
Litchfield Shire,
Darwin Region,