The Forest Monitoring Steering Committee, independently chaired by the Natural Resources Commission, oversaw this work as part of the Private Native Forestry Monitoring Program.
Project overview
We engaged remote sensing scientists to examine how remote sensing can support broadscale monitoring of private native forestry.
The team worked with a cross‑agency technical review team and independent experts.
The project tested different indicators, assessed their feasibility and showed how they could be applied through case studies.
Lead scientists who did this work:
- Dr Sam Hislop (FlintPro)
- Dr Christine Stone (independent research scientist)
Key findings
The study found that several remote sensing indicators could support monitoring at both site and landscape scales. Case studies showed:
- what each indicator can detect
- how indicators respond to forest change
- limits, data gaps and next steps for development.
The study also found that an effective biophysical monitoring program would ideally include 3 tiers of data collection:
- on-ground sampling
- high‑resolution aerial imagery
- moderate‑resolution satellite imagery.
Using all 3 tiers at regular, statistically defensible intervals would produce strong insights.
However, applying all tiers across the entire PNF estate would be costly.
Local Land Services considered this study when developing the implementation plan for the PNF Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting (MER) Framework.
Activities
This work included:
- assessing options and feasibility for remote sensing indicators, satellite imagery and other airborne data
- applying potential indicators to real examples
- reviewing results with experts and refining the approach over several stages.