Aerial view of the Peel River running into the Chaffey Dam, NSW.

Environmental Earth Observation: developing applications for better use of remote sensing data

Environmental Earth Observation: developing applications which integrate observations with models to inform management and policy in areas of significant national and international relevance.

• 24 May 2011 | Updated 14 October 2011

Overview

The Environmental Earth Observation program focuses on developing applications which integrate observations with models to inform management and policy in areas of significant national and international relevance. 

The program is addressing the need to:

• assess impacts of climate change and variability, vegetation functioning, land use and water management on water availability and quality
• develop predictive tools to operationalise resource management at relevant management unit scales (ecosystem, catchment, continent)
• deliver accurate earth observation products
• advance related technology and tools.

We use data sources including on-ground, airborne and satellite observations and combine these in process models to both improve the predictions made from those models and to achieve greater understanding of large-scale processes.

The use of satellite observations helps us overcome the limitations in the often sparse distribution of ground-based measurement sites for important environmental variables in Australia. Combining these data in models helps us ‘constrain’ the models to give better predictions and better understanding of environmental processes.

Research also investigates improved methods to process earth observation data, leading to better data products.

Terrestrial (land) earth observation

The challenges being tackled here cover the range of scales from the individual tree and plot to whole landscapes and the continent, to observe climate, landscape, hydrological and vegetation processes and vegetation and land surface condition.

Key areas of focus use remote sensing to investigate changes in land surface – climate interactions and coupling of the water and carbon balances; and observation and prediction of hydrological processes such as water resource generation and flooding.

Aquatic (water) earth observation

The challenges being tackled focus on the development of methods for water quality and habitat mapping in waters traditionally difficult to map using remote sensing and other techniques. These comprise Australia’s shallow coastal waters, including the Great Barrier Reef, and turbid inland waters.

The program has a strong international reputation and network of research colleagues, particularly in Europe and the United States, and interacts with key space agencies (e.g. NASA, ESA and ISRO).

We have ongoing collaborative research and consultancies with a range of university and government institutions. 

The program also collaborates with key agencies who adopt our research, such as

• the Bureau of Meteorology,
• the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities
• Geoscience Australia.

The program welcomes interest from potential future research collaborators.