240f9f93-987b-40a1-a032-9a9831c7b29e urn:uuid eng UTF-8 nonGeographicDataset nonGeographicDataset 2025-08-01T04:43:13 creation ISO 19115 2016 Ground Cover Reference Sites Database of Queensland 240f9f93-987b-40a1-a032-9a9831c7b29e The Ground Cover Reference Sites Database of Queensland has been collected by Department of Environment and Science, Queensland as part of 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 fractional vegetation cover product of Guerschman et al. (2009) derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). This algorithm enables national, monthly identification of ground cover separating the photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic components by applying a linear unmixing methodology for spectral reflectance every 8 days as 16-day composites. For confidence in its ground cover estimates, the results were verified in the field at selected sites across Australia to allow more extensive calibration, validation and verification of accuracy of the remote sensing method. The Ground Cover Reference Sites Database represents the results of the field validation of remotely determined cover measurements by observing cover along point intersects with a total of 300 points (or 200 points with crops). It also has additional observations and measures such as landscape features, fire evidence, erosion evidence, biotic disturbance evidence, biomass estimates, basal area measurements, soil features and dominant vegetation species, as well as site photographs. The Ground Cover Reference Sites Database focuses on sites in extensive grazing systems of the rangelands and, to a lesser extent, in the mixed farming or intensive land use zone. Field validation aims at obtaining a wide spatial coverage of sites, with limited site revisits for temporal coverage. {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[142.867656057968, -28.1795092797054], [151.640164984411, -28.1795092797054], [151.640164984411, -18.1700166950026], [142.867656057968, -18.1700166950026], [142.867656057968, -28.1795092797054]]]} 142.867656057968 151.640164984411 -28.1795092797054 -18.1700166950026 Acacia farnesiana Acacia sp. Aristida sp. Astrebla squarrosa Atalaya hemiglauca Bothriochloa ewartiana Bothriochloa pertusa Bothriochloa sp. Carissa ovata Cassia rotundifolia Chloris gayana Chloris virgata Corymbia clarksoniana Corymbia dallachiana Corymbia setosa Corymbia tessellaris Cyperus sp. Desmodium sp. Disturbance Eriochloa sp. Erosion Eucalyptus brownii Eucalyptus crebra Eucalyptus drepanophylla Eucalyptus sp. Euclayptus melanophloia Flora Geology Heteropogon contortus Land Cover Land Use Landscape Lithology Marrubium vulgare Maytenus cunninghamii Melaleuca sp. Melinis repens Mitchell grass sp. Neptunia amplexicaulis Petalostigma pubescens Poa sp. Sedge sp. Sida sp. Soil Species Presence/Abundance Stylosanthes hamata Themeda triandra Vegetation Cover Vegetation Structure Wincassia sp. http://aekos.org.au/collection/gov.au/abares/gcrs_Qld documentDigital HTML Unnamed resource documentDigital PNG