This layer identifies areas mapped as rainforest communities across Victoria. It involved a combination of modelling, using Sentinel satellite composites, species distribution modelling and interpretation and interpretation of high resolution extent of Rainforest across Victoria, excluding the Strzelecki Ranges. Within the Strzelecki Ranges, extent and type have been modelled but these outputs are yet to be confirmedand checked against high resolution aerial photography.
The layer identifies five classes of rainforest community:
1. Cool Temperate Rainforest
2. Dry Rainforest
3. Gallery Rainforest
4. Littoral Rainforest
5. Warm Termperate Rainforest
Search Words:
Biota
Publication Date:
16 November 2019
Dataset Status:
State-wide Victoria
Completeness Verification: The extent of rainforest in the Strzelecki Ranges is the only area of the state that hasnt been verified.
No field validation of this dataset has been undertaken to date.
Progress:
Completed
Access Constraint:
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY)
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License Text
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Data Existence:
Metadata Name
Descriptions
Resource Name:
RAINFOR
Title:
Rainforest Mapping for state-wide Victoria
Anzlic ID:
ANZVI0803008605
Custodian:
Owner:
Jurisdiction:
Victoria
Abstract:
This layer identifies areas mapped as rainforest communities across Victoria. It involved a combination of modelling, using Sentinel satellite composites, species distribution modelling and interpretation and interpretation of high resolution extent of Rainforest across Victoria, excluding the Strzelecki Ranges. Within the Strzelecki Ranges, extent and type have been modelled but these outputs are yet to be confirmedand checked against high resolution aerial photography.
The layer identifies five classes of rainforest community:
1. Cool Temperate Rainforest
2. Dry Rainforest
3. Gallery Rainforest
4. Littoral Rainforest
5. Warm Termperate Rainforest
Search Words:
Biota
Purpose:
All rainforest communities must be protected from threatening processes such as timber harvesting and fire management activities.
Forest Planners across Government and non-Government organisations are encouraged to utilise this new data as part of their risk management plans to protect rainforest communities.
For areas of modelled rainforest that have been mapped outside of the formal Comprehensive, Adequate and Representative (CAR) reserve system; forest management planners will need to confirm in the field the presence and extent of the rainforest community prior to any forest or fire management activity commencing.
The data provided within RAINFOR is a modelled extent of rainforest based upon the spectral characteristics extractable from the Sentinel satellite imagery. The data has been Quality Assured through a supervised assessment of the classification result to ensure that communities have identified and mapped accurately
Geographic Extent Polygon:
Geographic Bounding Box:
-34
141
150
-39
Beginning to Ending Date:
2018-10-31 - 2019-05-30
Maintainence and Update Frequency:
Not planned
Stored Data Format:
Available Format(s) Types:
DIGITAL
Positional Accuracy:
10m
Attribute Accuracy:
In this project the modelling has essentially been used to highlight and identify places that may support rainforest and warrant further checking or `truthing' using high resolution aerial photography. As such, the success or otherwise of the modelling is partially qualitative as it relates to `efficient searching' and spatial precision in a context of and elevated sensitivity to false absence or missing extant rainforest stands. In general, the model over predicted the extent of rainforest, misclassifying significant areas of various vegetation types including but not exclusive to, non-Eucalypt dominated vegetation, particularly mesophyll shrublands, urban gardens and exotic broadleaf trees in rural areas, Acacia stands (particularly those dominated by Blackthorn Acacia silvestris), tree-fern dominated gullies and myrtaceous shrublands associated with streams and swamps. These were removed through the hand editing process, but significant regions of these types persist in the modelled rainforest extent in the Strzelecki Ranges.
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