Australian ground cover reference sites database: User guide for
Contents
1. e Select sites with bare excluding crypto crust disturbed rock greater than 40 per cent SELECT FROM fc_sum WHERE cast dist as double precision cast cr as double precision cast rock as double precision gt 40 e Select site name and collection date for sites with active erosion SELECT erosion site_name date_collect time FROM site_desc WHERE erosion LIKE A e Join two tables on unique_obs and select all bare brown and green fractions and site name and collection date and time for sites with active erosion SELECT fc3 site_desc erosion site_desc site_name site_desc date_collect site_desc time FROM fc3 site_desc WHERE erosion LIKE A AND fc3 unique_obs site_desc unique_obs e Summarise data by a column number of sites per state SELECT state COUNT FROM site desc GROUP BY state e Select metrics and summarise by a column bare maximum minimum average by state SELECT state MAX bare MIN bare AVG bare FROM site_desc fc3 WHERE site _desc unique_obs fc3 unique_obs GROUP BY state e Summarise data by 2 columns states cropping SELECT state crop COUNT FROM site_desc GROUP BY state crop ORDER BY 1 2 17 Manipulating the database Example SQL functions to manipulate the PostGIS field database e Create a copy of an existing table CREATE TABLE fc_raw_backup AS SELECT FROM fc_raw INSERT into gcov_pub fc_raw SELECT from gcov fc_raw e Change a column name ALTER TABLE photos RENAME COLUMN d2. information system programs such as QGIS Table 8 Attributes of sites_geom table Field name site_name state latitude longitude unique_obs geom Description Name of the site e g Vic1001 State abbreviations e g NSW Latitude Longitude Site identifier longitude_latitude_date Point geometry latitude longitude in WGS84 13 Data type Values allowed Text 20 characters Text 5 characters Real Real Text 00000000_0000000_yyyymmdd 32 characters Point location Cover summaries Views are automatically updated as data is added or changed in the other tables The views fc_summary Table 9 and fc3 Table 10 calculate fractions for the ground layer from the raw transect values in fc_raw Table 3 Other views could be produced to calculate total vegetation cover including the woody vegetation components such as view sum_check Table 12 The view fc_summary Table 9 calculates the percent cover for each cover type directly from the 200 or 300 transect observations points recorded in the table fc_raw Table 9 Attributes of fc_summary view Field name Description Data type Values allowed crust Soil crust sum cr no points x 100 Real 0 100 00 dist Disturbed soil sum ds no points x 100 Real 0 100 00 rock Rock sum rk no points x 100 Real 0 100 00 green Green leaf non woody vegetation Real 0 100 00 sum gr no points x 100 dry Dry leaf non woody vegetation Real 0
3. Very few lt 2 2 Few 2 10 3 Common 10 20 4 Many 20 50 5 Abundant 50 90 6 Very abundant gt 90 0 Smooth lt 3 mm variation D Depressions M Mounds C Cropping rows furrows G Cracking M Self mulching L Loose S Soft F Firm H Hard setting C Surface crust X Surface flake Y Cryptogam surface T Trampled P Poached R Recently cultivated Z Saline O Other O Loose 1 Very weak 2 Weak 3 Firm 4 Very firm 5 Strong 6 Very strong 7 Rigid 1 Fine lt 5 mm 2 Medium 5 10 mm 3 Coarse 10 20 mm 4 Very coarse 20 50 mm 5 Extremely coarse gt 50 mm NH Horses NS Sheep NC Cows NG Goats NP Pigs NM Macropod NL Camel NR Rabbits H Human B Bird T Termite A Ant V Vegetation O Other None lt 2 2 10 10 20 20 50 50 90 gt 90 50 characters e g 5YR 3 2 50 characters Wet Dry 12 Table 7 cont Attributes of site_desc table land surface Field name rock1st 2nd 3rd_v rock1st 2nd 3rd_c rock_lag rock_lag_s soilclr1_cd soilclr2_dd soilclr3_cw soilclr4_dw soil_col_max wet_dry Description Rock colour for dominant 3 Munsell value Rock colour for dominant 3 Munsell chroma Abundance of rocks lag Average fragment size Basic colour for dry soil crust Basic colour for dry disturbed soil Basic colour for wet soil crust Basic colour for wet disturb
4. 100 00 sum dr no points x 100 litter Litter sum li no points x 100 Real 0 100 00 crypto Cryptogam sum cy no points x 100 Real 0 100 00 mid_g Green leaf woody vegetation lt 2m Real 0 100 00 sum mg no points x 100 mid_d Dry leaf woody vegetation lt 2m Real 0 100 00 sum md no points x 100 mid_b Branch lt 2m sum mb no points x 100 Real 0 100 00 in_crown In live tree crown Real 0 100 00 sum oic no points x 100 over_g Green leaf woody vegetation gt 2m Real 0 100 00 sum og no points x 100 over_d Dry leaf woody vegetation gt 2m Real 0 100 00 sum od no points x 100 over_b Branch gt 2m sum ob no points x 100 Real 0 100 00 unique_obs Site identifier Text 00000000_0000000_yyyymmdd longitude_latitude_date 32 characters Cover fractions The view fc3 Table 10 calculates the three ground cover fractions by adding the field calculated in the view fc_summary Table 9 Table 10 Attributes of fc3 view Field name Description Data type Values allowed bare Bare soil BS Real 0 100 00 crust dist rock crypto green Photosynthetic non woody vegetation PV Real 0 100 00 green brown Non photosynthetic non woody vegetation Real 0 100 00 NPV dry litter cover Non woody ground cover PV NPV Real 0 100 00 green brown unique_obs Site identifier Text 00000000_0000000_yyyymmdd longitude_latitude_date 32 charac
5. on the transects Number of live trees inside area at each of 7 points on the transect Number of dead trees inside area at each of 7 points on the transect Converted prism x live Average live tree basal area total conv 7 m ha 11 Data type Real Text Real Text Text Real Text Real Text Real Text Real Real Integer Integer Real Real Values allowed Visual Photo standards Visual and photo standards Quantitative O No evidence 1 Minor burn lt 5 site or gt 3 years 2 Recent major burn gt 5 site or lt 3 years 0 5 6 25 26 50 51 75 76 100 55 characters 0 100 00 55 characters 0 100 00 55 characters 0 100 00 Table 7 Attributes of site_desc table land surface Field name erosion wind_erosion scald_erosion sheet_erosion rill_erosion gully_erosion deposits amount micro_relief vertical_m horizontal_m s_condl 2 3 s_stngth s_cracks disturb1 2 3 crust_d w_h crust_d w_v crust_d w_c dist_d w_h dist_d w_v dist_d w_c crypto crypto_mc crypto_bc crypto_w_d rock1st 2nd 3rd_h Description State of erosion Wind erosion severity Scald erosion by water and or wind severity Sheet erosion by water severity Rill erosion by water severity Gully erosion by water severity Deposited materials Abundance of deposited material Surface smoothness mounds depressions furrows Interval betwe
6. site All images are taken from the transect centre with the first pointing directly down G and the others along each transect line L starting at north and working around in a clockwise direction Five photos are taken when the site has vegetation in rows 8 cropping and seven photos at each site in natural or pastoral environments The number of photos taken reflects the field collection protocol adopted protocol 2 P2 or two transects for vegetation in rows Figure 3 and protocol 1 P1 or three transects for natural or pastoral environments Figure 2 The photos table Table 4 stores the details of these digital photographs Table 4 Attributes of photos table Field name Description Data type Values allowed code Primary key unique_obs name Text 35 characters unique_obs Site identifier Text 00000000_0000000_yyyymmdd longitude_latitude_date 32 characters site_name Name of the site e g Vic1001 Text 20 characters state State abbreviation e g NSW Text 3 characters crop Site cropped or not Text Yes No name G1 centre down L1 1st L2 2nd Text G1 L1 L2 L3 L4 L5 L6 L3 3rd L4 4th L5 5th L6 6th transect Which transect the image shows Integer 1 2 3 direction Site orientation in degrees Integer 0 360 cardinal_direction Direction text Text 10 characters weblink Link to online photo library Text 255 characters Note At sites with vegetation in rows cropping only 5 photos were taken G1 L4 Some site p
7. 2011 Raw transect data The fc_raw table Table 3 contains multiple measurements taken at each site of the presence or absence of ground cover woody vegetation less than two metres midstorey and woody vegetation greater than 2 metres overstorey For most sites a total of 300 observations of the vegetation community are measured with one measurement taken every metre along three 100 metre transects arranged in a star shape called protocol 1 P1 Figure 2 Where vegetation is in rows as for cropping the pattern of cover is more uniform and the method has been simplified to a total of 200 observations recorded along two 100 metre transects oriented 45 degrees off row called protocol 2 P2 Figure 3 as described in the section above Measurements are recorded as a 1 Only one feature type i e green leaf dry leaf etc is recorded for each observation category stratum except where the measurement for woody vegetation greater than two metres is within a live tree crown in this case two measurements are recorded in crown field name oic as well as the canopy element intercepted Table 3 Attributes of fc_raw table Field name Description Datatype Values allowed Strata point Transect measurement Integer 1 300 All cr Soil crust Integer 0 1 Ground ds Disturbed soil Integer 0 1 Ground rk Rock Integer 0 1 Ground gr Green leaf non woody vegetation Integer 0 1 Ground dr Dry leaf non woody vegetation Integer 0 1 Ground li L
8. A A A acsauaseates tn ET 1 SUMMA lc 1 Introductio a oa 3 Observations In the databaserisinii a A aa 4 A E E A T E tues tecemeaeuatiade 5 Field collection Protocol Sirainens a a a a earras 6 Raw transect data isa pedal A EN OA alta 8 Photographs citant aae aeaa aa Dd E A ds EA Saa 8 Site descoptON torino cocineta innata E Stee 9 e o AO 13 Cover SUM ia TA eat eE SEA ees ee ia 14 COVER TACO iii A A A A Aa 14 Exposed cover fractions ana tt a aa A ds Cala 15 Checking the datar tata a atrasa ves vote tad 15 SOLTIACUONS se ta rodas tado 17 Querying the databases A a ae 17 Manipulating the database Snae e eiei aeeai a a E a a aeaa ea E nono a a 18 ACTON Sa iena t ee a a a a a il a aa ae aA a aa a a a aa Ta a a aAa eee 19 REfETENCES cis a 20 Introduction A national remotely sensed fractional cover product is necessary to monitor ground cover levels as a key input to wind and water erosion modeling to predict rates of soil loss and to monitor the impact of different management practices on ground cover levels and soil erosion risk Ground cover is defined as the non woody vegetation and litter covering the soil surface and can be monitored using remote sensing At a national workshop in November 2009 the MODIS derived vegetation cover product of Guerschman et al 2009 was selected for national monitoring of ground cover Stewart et al 2011 The workshop also identified the need for a national network of ground cover reference sites to calibra
9. Australian Government Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry ABARES Australian ground cover reference sites database User guide for PostGIS Jasmine Rickards Jane Stewart Rebecca McPhee amp Lucy Randall Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences June 2013 Summary Ground cover is the amount of living and dead vegetation in contact with the soil surface Spatially explicit monthly ground cover data are needed to improve modeling and monitoring of wind and water erosion soil carbon and soil acidification The Ground cover monitoring for Australia project is delivering a remotely sensed ground cover product describing green or photosynthetic vegetation non green or non photosynthetic vegetation and bare soil The project is also delivering a national network of sensor independent ground reference sites to validate this product The data has been collected by state and territory agricultural agencies as part of the Ground cover monitoring for Australia project This project is funded by the Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry and coordinated by its Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences ABARES in partnership with the CSIRO and state and territory agencies The ground cover reference sites database contains the data collected from the national network of ground reference sites This data includes site descriptions and the associated field measur
10. E Tables 5 Lt EN exposed ES fc_raw E photos E site desc H E sites geom FLA Views 3 dd 103 ES fc_summary En sum check Table 2 Tables and views in the ground cover reference site database Name Content for each site Type Attributes exposed Exposed ground cover fractions bare brown and green of sites Table Table 11 fc_raw Raw data for each point along the transect layout 300 or 200 Table Table 3 observations photos An index of 7 or 5 photographs taken along the transect layout Table Table 4 site_desc Other information describing the site such as land use vegetation Table Table 5 7 species soil surface condition soil colour etc sites_geom Location in latitude and longitude Table geom Table 8 fc3 Totals for the ground layer fractions PV green NPV dry and BS View Table 10 bare fractions and ground cover PV NPV fc_summary Totals for each cover category View Table 9 sum_check Total cover to identify errors View Table 12 Note PV photosynthetic vegetation NPV non photosynthetic vegetation BS bare soil Field collection protocols The field collection protocol code from the site_desc table in the PostGIS database Table 5 identifies the layout of the field transects and the attributes collected at the site The data collected through the Ground cover monitoring for Australia project uses two transect layouts developed by Queensland Department of Science Information Technology Inn
11. aditional indigenous land uses The majority of sites are located in the rangelands In developing the database data users requested that it be created using open source software and have the ability to display site data within a geographical information system GIS PostGIS was chosen as it enables the object relational database PostgreSQL to serve the site data spatially by site location and to query the data using SQL functions The SQL functions section of this user guide provides some examples The user guide is an update to a previous version released in 2012 Rickards et al 2012 Observations in the database This field site database contains 464 observations from 460 unique sites across Australia The database does not contain all 545 observations funded under the Ground cover monitoring for Australia project because some project partners requested that field observations on private land not be published due to confidentiality The total number of observations collected by each state is shown in Table 1 The locations of the publishable sites in the database are shown in Map 1 Table 1 Number of observations in each state Observations State Total Published Unpublished New South Wales 91 58 33 Northern Territory 109 95 14 Queensland 30 28 2 South Australia 100 88 12 Tasmania 25 25 Victoria 48 28 20 Western Australia 142 142 Total 545 464 81 Note Data from unpublished sites may be acquired for specific rese
12. arch projects at the discretion of the relevant state agency Map 1 Location of sites in the database as at February 2013 e published sites 0 ZA __ non forested agricultural land uses amp E excluded areas C rangeland boundary Source ABARES 2013 Database design The ground cover reference sites database has been created using the open source software PostGIS http postgis refractions net and is available as a pg dump SQL file It can be loaded into PostGIS by running the pg dump file Running this file will create and populate five tables and three views schema shown in Figure 1 Tables contain static data Views calculate values from the tables and automatically update when new data is entered into the tables A description of each table and view are given in Table 2 The attributes contained in each table are provided in Tables 3 to 12 Each site visit is assigned a unique_obs code of longitude_latitude_date to join or relate all tables Each table also contains a primary key which is unique for each data entry at a site For attributes with a single data entry such as in the site description table Table 5 the primary key is the unique_obs code For attributes with multiple data entries such as in the raw transect data table Table 3 with 200 300 points per site the primary key is either a new field or a combination of existing fields Figure 1 Schema of PostGIS database H
13. cs and Sciences Canberra March available at www adl brs gov au data warehouse pe abares99001799 Groundcover_mapping workshop proc 11 pdf PDF 1 50MB 20 Stewart JB Randall LA Rickards JE and Bordas VM 2012 Ground cover monitoring for Australia Progress report to June 2011 ABARES Technical report 12 1 Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences Canberra May available at adl brs gov au data warehouse gcmfap9abll080 GroundCoverMonitoringAust_v 1 0 0 pdf PDF 2 13MB Stewart JB Rickards JE and Randall LA in prep Ground cover monitoring for Australia Progress report to June 2012 ABARES Technical Report Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences Canberra White A Sparrow B Leitch E Foulkes J Flitton R Lowe AJ and Caddy Retalic S 2012 AusPlots Rangelands Survey Protocols Manual Version 1 2 9 2012 University of Adelaide Press South Australia www tern org au rs 7 sites 998 user_uploads File AusPlots 20Rangelands 20manual 20versions AusPlots 20Rangelands 20Survey 20Protocols 20Manual 20v1 2 9 20HiRes pdf PDF 25 58MB 21
14. ed soil Most represented soil colour Whether a dry soil colour was given Data type Integer Integer Text Text Text Text Text Text Text Text Values allowed O None 1 Very few lt 2 of site 2 Few 2 10 of site 3 Common 10 20 of site 4 Many 20 50 of site 5 Abundant 50 90 of site 6 Very abundant gt 90 of site Fine gravelly 2 6 mm Medium gravelly 6 20 mm Coarse gravelly 20 60 mm Cobbly 60 200 mm Stony 200 600 mm Boulders 60 2000 mm Large boulders gt 2000 mm Yellow Red Brown Black Grey Yellow Red Brown Black Grey Yellow Red Brown Black Grey Yellow Red Brown Black Grey Yellow Red Brown Black Grey Null Dry Null Wet Note Soil and rock lag colour are recorded using the Munsell Soil Color Charts 1994 Basic soil colour is derived from the Munsell Soil Color Charts according to the colour classes of the Australian Soil Classification Isbell 2002 www clw csiro au aclep asc_re_on line soilcocl htm Most represented soil colour is determined from the frequency of transect observations for soil crust and disturbed soil from fc_raw Table 3 The soil surface is assumed to have been wet when visited if there is no dry soil colour recorded Site locations The x y coordinates of the field locations are saved in the sites_geom table Table 8 This table contains geometries to enable the points to be shown and queried spatially in geographic
15. ements of fractional ground cover Data has been collected across Australia at field sites under grazing and broadacre cropping land uses according to nationally agreed standards Muir et al 2011 Data collection commenced in July 2010 and continued until February 2013 This published field site database contains 464 observations from 460 unique sites across Australia This is a subset of the 541 unique sites 545 observations mostly located in the rangelands which were collected through the Ground cover monitoring for Australia project The data is being used to calibrate validate and improve vegetation fractional cover products derived from remote sensing in particular the satellite sensors MODIS and Landsat The data is being used to improve the national MODIS derived product of Guerschman et al 2009 The ground cover reference sites database has been developed using open source software the object relational database PostgreSQL with PostGIS to support geographic objects This enables the database to be displayed spatially by site location within geographical information systems The data is made publically available through the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network TERN National Computer Infrastructure http rs nci org au and the TERN Australian Ecological Knowledge and Observation System AEKOS Data Portal http portal aekos org au Contents Australian ground cover reference sites database User guide for PostGIS A O
16. en base and crest m Horizontal distance between crests m Surface condition when dry Surface soil strength Surface cracks Biotic agents causing soil surface relief disturbance up to 3 agents Dry and wet soil crust colour Munsell hue Dry and wet soil crust colour Munsell value Dry and wet soil crust colour Munsell chroma Dry and wet disturbed soil colour Munsell hue Dry and wet disturbed soil colour Munsell value Dry and wet disturbed soil colour Munsell chroma Cryptogam cover Cryptogam colour Munsell hue value chroma Cryptogam colour basic colour Cryptogam wet or dry First three dominant rock cover readings Munsell hue Data type Text Text Text Text Text Text Text Text Text Integer Integer Text Text Text Text Text Integer Integer Text Integer Integer Text Text Text Text Text Values allowed N None A Active S Stabilised P Partly stabilised 0 None 1 Minor 2 Moderate 3 Severe 4 Very severe 0 None 1 Minor lt 5 of site 2 Moderate 5 50 of site 3 Severe gt 50 of site 0 None 1 Minor 2 Moderate 3 Severe 0 None 1 Minor occasional 2 Moderate common 3 Severe corrugated 0 None 1 Minor isolated 2 Moderate restricted to drainage lines 3 Severe branch away from primary drainage lines Sand lt 2mm Gravel 2 60mm Stones gt 60mm 0 None 1
17. hotographs These photos were included in the ground cover reference sites database Some project partners have developed or are developing new tools to improve efficiency of entering data in the field using tablets or smart phones The University of Adelaide is creating an application for the Android operating system to be used on portable devices for TERN AusPlots rangelands The Queensland Department of Science Information Technology Innovation and the Arts have developed a data entry form using an Android app called ODK Collect The Northern Territory Department of Land Resource Management has developed an Apple Numbers spreadsheet template for fractional cover data collection using iPads The ground cover reference sites database conforms to the methods described in Muir et al 2011 Choice of site locations was informed by a sampling strategy Malthus et al 2013 and sampling protocols Stewart et al 2012 Stewart et al in prep Sites were to be located in areas dominated by non woody vegetation with tree canopy cover less than 20 per cent under grazing or broadacre cropping land uses Areas with tree cover greater than 20 per cent based on Montreal Process Implementation Group for Australia 2008 and non agricultural land uses such as urban conservation or indigenous land uses based on ABARES 2011 were avoided where possible Due to site and imagery access limitations some sites are located in national parks nature conservation and tr
18. hotographs were uploaded to the Earth Observation and Modelling Global Geo Referenced Field Photo Library www eomf ou edu photos Site photos can now be viewed on the TERN AEKOS data portal http portal aekos org au Site description The site description details are saved in the table site_desc In this user guide the site_desc attributes are presented in three tables corresponding to the three sections of the site description form used by the field operator to enter the data Table 5 contains the basic site description attributes Table 6 contains the vegetation description attributes and Table 7 contains the land surface attributes Some site_desc table attributes basic soil colours and soil moisture Table 7 have been calculated from the collected data Table 5 Attributes of site_desc table basic site description Field name Description Data type Values allowed publish Consent for public release of data if No not Text Yes No published unique_obs Site identifier Text 00000000_0000000_yyyymmdd longitude_latitude_date 32 characters site_name Name of the site e g Vic1001 Text 20 characters state State abbreviation e g NSW Text 3 characters loc_desc Landform or nearby landmarks e g towns or Text 255 characters roads UNPUBLISHED site_desc Details of land use management or recent Text 255 characters natural events date_collect Date site completed as year month day Integer yyyymmdd time Time site started
19. in 24 hour time Time 5 hh mm purpose Purpose of data collection Text Ground cover monitoring protocol Code describing the transect layout and Text P1 P2 P3 P4 PS attributes collected revisit If site has been observed previously using the Text Yes No same protocol zone Zone as per MGA94 or UTM Integer 49 56 datum Coordinate system WGS94 or GDA94 Text 6 characters obs_collect Person who made the transect readings Text 20 characters UNPUBLISHED obs_log east_c north_c diff_gps bear_t1 2 3 slope aspect landuse alumv7 commod crop management growth spectra Person who recorded the transect readings UNPUBLISHED Transect centre easting Transect centre northing Whether a differential GPS was used for a more accurate location Bearing of transect 1 2 and 3 in degrees Slope of site in per cent Horizontal direction in which the slope faces in degrees ALUM v7 tertiary class ALUM v7 tertiary code no decimals e g 331 Commodity name Site cropped or not The current management phase for the vegetation present including litter interpreted with growth stage Growth phase for the majority of plants observed Whether field spectra collected Text Real Real Text Integer Integer Integer Text Integer Text Text Text Text Text 20 characters Yes No 0 360 0 100 0 360 50 characters 100 663 20 characters Yes No Abandoned Baled Burnt Cultivated Grazed Incorpora
20. irection TO dir e Inserta row of values into a table 1 landsat table INSERT INTO landsat VALUES 13426837_2887273_20110416_1 13426837_2887273_20110416 1 LT51010802011085 ASAOO tar gz 0 2 photos table INSERT INTO photos code unique_obs site_name state crop name transect direction VALUES 10000000_1000000_20110101_g1 10000000_1000000_20110101 sitename NSW n g 1 00 00 Delete a row from a table DELETE FROM photos WHERE code 10000000_1000000_20110101_g1 ALTER TABLE photos DROP ROW yel e Delete column a whole table can also be dropped ALTER TABLE table_name DROP COLUMN column_name e Delete from a table based on an attribute in another table DELETE from gcov_pub fc_raw WHERE unique_obs in select unique_obs from gcov site_desc where publish No e Update data in a column based on an existing attribute 1 Replace an existing value with a new one UPDATE exposed set unique_obs 12172062_ 3086876 _20101013 where unique_obs 12172062_3086876_20101213 2 Add a new geometry location UPDATE sites_geom set geom geomfromtext Point 36 836742 143 96555 4326 where site_name vic002 18 Acronyms AEKOS ALUM CSIRO GDA94 GPS MGA94 MODIS SQL TERN UTM WGS84 Australian Ecological Knowledge and Observation System Australian Land Use and Management classification Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Geocentric Datum of Australia 1994 grid co
21. itter Integer 0 1 Ground cy Cryptogam Integer 0 1 Ground mg Green leaf woody vegetation lt 2m Integer 0 1 Mid md Dry leaf woody vegetation lt 2m Integer 0 1 Mid mb Branch lt 2m Integer 0 1 Mid oic In crown for live woody vegetation gt 2m Integer 0 1 Over og Green leaf woody vegetation gt 2m Integer 0 1 Over od Dry leaf woody vegetation gt 2m Integer 0 1 Over ob Branch gt 2m Integer 0 1 Over unique_obs Site identifier Text 00000000_0000000_yyyymmdd All longitude_latitude_date 32 characters g total Only one observation for ground cover Integer 1 Ground cr ds rk gr dr li cy is permitted at each point m_total Zero or one observations of woody Integer 0 1 Mid vegetation lt 2m mg md mb are permitted at each point o_total Zero one or two observations of woody Integer 0 1 2 Over vegetation gt 2m oictog od ob are permitted at each point all_total Number of strata for each transect point Integer 1 2 3 4 All g_total m_total o_total Note Primary key unique_obs point Non woody vegetative cover such as grasses has no height restriction dry leaf is senescent or dead vegetation attached to a plant or the ground litter is unattached dead vegetation cryptogam is a biological crust on the soil surface in crown is the vertically projected perimeter of all foliage and branches of the plant and is recorded for live trees only Latitude and longitude are given in decimal degrees Photographs Digital photographs are taken at each
22. n unless there is no overstorey fraction then it is the midstorey fraction unless there is no midstorey then it is the ground cover fraction The overstorey and midstorey are calculated as green brown or absent using the following calculations mid IF mid green mg 1 green IF mid dry md 1 brown IF mid branch mb 1 brown 0 over IF over green og 1 green IF over dry od 1 brown IF over branch ob 1 brown 0 The ground cover is calculated as green brown or bare using the following calculation ground IF crust 1 bare IF disturbed 1 bare IF rock 1 bare IF green 1 green IF dry 1 brown IF litter 1 brown IF crypto 1 bare 0 The exposed cover for the point is calculated as exposed IF over green sreen IF over brown brown IF mid green green IF mid brown brown ground Checking the data The view sum_check Table 12 calculates the cover fraction percentages for each site at the ground layer woody vegetation lt 2m layer midstorey and woody vegetation gt 2m layer overstorey The ground layer percentage should equal 100 percent as a fraction is recorded at each transect intercept observation The woody vegetation lt 2m midstorey and woody vegetation gt 2m overstorey layers do not have values collected at every transect intercept When woody vegetation gt 2m is encountered in a live tree crown two values are recorded In crown indicates that the transect falls in an area
23. ntrol sites CSIRO Land and Water Science Report Canberra available at adl brs gov au data warehouse 9ic 9icl 2013 gcmssd9ica_00120130308 grndCovMonAustSampS tratAndSelGrndCovCont_v1 0 0 pdf PDF 2 2MB Montreal Process Implementation Group for Australia 2008 Australia s State of the Forests Report 2008 Bureau of Rural Sciences Canberra Muir J Schmidt M Tindall D Trevithick R Scarth P and Stewart JB 2011 Field measurement of fractional ground cover A technical handbook supporting ground cover monitoring in Australia prepared by the Queensland Department of Science Information Technology Innovation and the Arts for the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences Canberra available at www adl brs gov au data warehouse pe_hbgcm9abll07701 HndbkGrndCovMontring2011 1 0 0 HR pdf PDF 81 20MB Rickards JE Stewart JB Randall LA and Bordas VM 2012 Ground cover reference sites database User guide for PostGIS Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences Canberra available at remote sensing nci org au u39 public html modis fractionalcover sitedata abares doc GcovPostGIS report12 pdf PDF 501kb Stewart JB Rickards JE Bordas VM Randall LA and Thackway RM 2011 Ground cover monitoring for Australia Establishing a coordinated approach to ground cover mapping Workshop proceedings Canberra 23 24 November 2009 Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economi
24. of live tree canopy and the second value recorded describes the cover fraction encountered Overstorey transect intercepts in sites with live tree canopy present may add up to 200 Sites suitable for collecting ground cover information are however chosen based on less than 20 per cent foliage projective cover and therefore the overstorey intercepts should be less than 100 15 Table 12 Attributes of sum_check view Field name Description unique_obs Site identifier longitude_latitude_date ground Intercepts with a value for ground layer mid Intercepts with a value for woody vegetation lt 2m over Intercepts with a value for woody vegetation gt 2m total Sum of all observations ground mid over Data type Text Real Real Real Real Values allowed 00000000_0000000_yyyymmdd 32 characters 100 00 0 100 00 0 200 00 100 00 400 00 16 SQL functions Querying the database Example SQL functions to query the PostGIS field database table name field name or threshold values can be changed as desired e Select all raw transect points for a particular site change table name or field as desired SELECT FROM fc_raw WHERE unique_obs 14885344 3205411 20101125 e Select only some columns from a table SELECT photos code photos crop FROM photos e Select sites with bare crust disturbed rock crypto greater than 40 per cent SELECT FROM fc3 WHERE cast bare as double precision gt 40
25. ordinate system for Australia Global Positioning System Map Grid of Australia standard revised 1994 projection Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer Structured Query Language Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network Universal Transverse Mercator projection World Geodetic System standard revised 1984 projection 19 References ABARES 2011 Guidelines for land use mapping in Australia principles procedures and definitions a technical handbook supporting the Australian Collaborative Land Use and Management Program 4th edn Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences Canberra available at adl brs gov au data warehouse pe_abares99001806 GuidelinesLandUseMappingLowRes2011 pdf PDF 3 81MB Guerschman JP Hill MJ Renzullo LJ Barrett DJ Marks AS and Botha EJ 2009 Estimating fractional cover of photosynthetic vegetation non photosynthetic vegetation and bare soil in the Australian tropical savanna region upscaling the EO 1 Hyperion and MODIS sensors Remote Sensing of Environment vol 113 no 5 pp 928 45 available at http dx doi org 10 1016 j rse 2009 01 006 Isbell RF 2002 The Australian Soil Classification revised edition Australian Soil and Land Survey Handbooks series 4 CSIRO publishing Malthus TJ Randall LA Barry S McVicar TM Bordas VM Stewart JB and Guerschman JP 2013 Ground cover monitoring for Australia Sampling strategy and selection of ground cover co
26. ovation and the Arts Muir et al 2011 Fractional ground cover data collected prior to this project used the same transect layouts but slightly different attributes TERN AusPlots sites will use a more intensive transect layout to collect fractional ground cover data The different transect layouts described by the protocols below are all suitable for improving MODIS and Landsat fractional cover algorithms The protocols have been assigned a code beginning with P1 for Protocol 1 Each protocol is described below P1 The star shaped transect method developed for the Queensland Statewide Land And Trees Survey SLATS has been used to measure vegetation in natural or pastoral environments Figure 2 Three hundred points are measured using the star shaped transect method as described in Muir et al 2011 Figure 2 P1 transect layout for natural or pastoral environments 0 transect 1 0 transect 2 300 60 25 50 240 120 75 transect 3 A N 100 180 metres Source Muir et al 2011 P2 The cross transect method has been adapted from the SLATS star transect method as a simplified method for vegetation in rows such as crops Figure 3 Two hundred points are measured using the cross shaped transect method as described in Muir et al 2011 Figure 3 P2 transect layout for vegetation in rows such as agricultural crops 0 transect 1 y 25 50 A 75 transect2 A N 100 metres row direction Source Muir et al
27. te validate and improve the accuracy of ground cover estimates To meet this objective national standards were developed to collect field measurements of ground cover and to describe sites with all states and the Northern Territory receiving training in their use Muir et al 2011 The national network of ground cover reference sites project commenced in July 2010 and was funded to June 2013 Information from 541 field sites 545 observations has been delivered as part of the Ground cover monitoring for Australia project This work was funded by the Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry and coordinated by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences ABARES in partnership with the CSIRO and state agencies The data was collected by the following state agencies New South Wales Office of Environment and Heritage Northern Territory Department of Land Resource Management Queensland Department of Science Information Technology Innovation and the Arts South Australian Department of Environment and Natural Resources Tasmanian Department of Primary Industries Parks Water and Environment Victorian Department of Environment and Primary Industries and the Western Australian Department of Agriculture and Food The data was collected in the field and entered into two electronic Microsoft Excel spreadsheets the site description form and the transect form and provided to ABARES along with digital site p
28. ted Mulched Sprayed Standing none Other Establishment Immature growing Mature Senescence residue None Yes No Note See field protocols section for descriptions of protocols ALUM v7 is the Australian Land Use and Management Classification www daff gov au abares aclump Unpublished data see description UNPUBLISHED has been excluded from the dataset 10 Table 6 Attributes of site_desc table vegetation description Field name biomass biomass_method grass m fire perm_veg overstorey vegist_o 2nd 3rd vegistpc_o 2nd 3rd vegist_m 2nd 3rd vegistpc_m 2nd 3rd vegist_g 2nd 3rd veglstpc_g prism1 2 3 4 5 6 7 live1 2 3 4 5 6 7 dead1 2 3 4 5 6 7 convl 2 3 4 5 6 7 total_live Description Estimate of standing non woody ground cover biomass kg ha Method used to estimate biomass density Average non woody vegetation height m Recent or severe fire Percentage of perennial grass cover Average woody vegetation height m Dominant 3 species by biomass for woody vegetation gt 2m Occurrence by biomass of the 3 dominant woody vegetation gt 2m species Dominant 3 species by biomass for woody vegetation lt 2m Occurrence by biomass of the 3 dominant woody vegetation lt 2m species Dominant 3 species by biomass for the non woody ground layer Occurrence by biomass of the 3 dominant non woody species Prism factor used for tree basal area at each of 7 points
29. ters 14 Exposed cover fractions The table exposed Table 11 presents the three cover fractions calculated from all vegetation strata ground mid and overstorey Exposed cover is the first cover seen when looking down on the transect point and estimates the view seen by the satellite Exposed cover differs from the fc3 calculated cover as fc3 presents the ground cover by calculating the cover fractions only for non woody vegetation bare soil and litter and excludes woody vegetation lt 2m and woody vegetation gt 2m Table 10 The calculation of exposed cover is currently completed in Microsoft Excel however this table could be improved by calculating exposed cover as a view so it automatically updates as new observations are added Table 11 Attributes of exposed table Field name Description Data type Values allowed ex_bare Exposed bare soil BS crust dist rock Real 0 100 00 crypto where no mid or overstorey ex_green Exposed green or photosynthetic vegetation PV Real 0 100 00 og mg or green ex_brown Exposed non green or non photosynthetic Real 0 100 00 vegetation ob od mb md dry or litter unique_obs Site identifier Text 00000000_0000000_yyyymmdd longitude_latitude_date 32 characters The exposed cover is calculated for each transect point A pivot table is then used to calculate the percentage exposed cover for the site For each transect point the exposed cover is the overstorey cover fractio
Download Pdf Manuals
Related Search