High-Resolution Remote Sensing of Upland Swamp Boundaries and Vegetation for Baseline Mapping and Monitoring

Current high-resolution remote sensing provides the means to accurately map upland swamp boundaries and vegetation communities in eastern Australian coastal woodlands. The aim of this study was to develop baseline methods for upland swamp definition and change detection that can be routinely applied in an operational setting. Airborne laser scanning was used to define swamp boundaries, image classification was used to describe vegetation communities, and post-classification comparison used to assess temporal variation in community composition over the period 2006-2007. We found that swamp boundaries could be accurately located along the sharp swamp-fringing tree ecotone (accuracy 98%), which provided a definitive feature to support both short- and long-term monitoring. Wet Heath and Dry Heath areas were well defined by image classification, and generally approximate the field-defined perennial vegetation communities of the Tea Tree Thicket and Sedgeland Heath Complexes. Temporal changes to Wet-Dry Heath extent appear to reflect growth phenology, rather than community composition. The proportion of non-vegetated area was less variable, hence an increase in bare ground is likely to be a robust indicator for impact assessment monitoring.