CONSIDERATIONS IN THE DESIGN OF A REMOTE SENSING FRAMEWORK FOR MONITORING TROPICAL COASTAL WETLANDS

摘要

The Supervising Scientist Division is part of the Australian Government's Department of the Environment and Water Resources. The position of Supervising Scientist was established in the Commonwealth Environment Protection (Alligator Rivers Region) Act 1978, following the Australian Government's decision to approve uranium mining at Ranger, to meet the need for an independent supervisory body to ensure that the environment of the Alligator Rivers Region (ARR) in the Northern Territory of Australia was protected from the potential impacts of uranium mining activities. The Supervising Scientist undertakes environmental research and reviews the environmental performance of uranium mines in the Alligator Rivers Region in the Northern Territory to ensure the protection of Kakadu National Park from the potential impacts of uranium mining.The ARR is located approximately 220 km east of Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia and encompasses an area of 28,000 square kilometres. Included within the ARR is the World Heritage listed Kakadu National Park and extensive Ramsar-listed wetlands. The Environmental Research Institute of the Supervising Scientist (eriss) undertakes independent monitoring and research into the impact of uranium mining activities within the ARR. Core to the Ecological Risk Assessment program, which operates from the site scale to the landscape scale, is the ongoing monitoring of the extensive coastal wetland complexes through the use of remote sensing.Monitoring and research of these wetlands using remote sensing requires the development of a remote sensing monitoring framework. This framework needs to take into account the following: 1) due to the highly seasonal environment characterised by a wet season dominated by ubiquitous cloud cover and a dry season dominated by atmospheric smoke resultant from wildfires, the use of optical data can be limited; 2) scales of interaction in terms of spatio-temporal characteristics of disturbance agents such as introduced weeds, feral animals, fire, climatic agents such as cyclones and floods and climate change impacts such as sea level rise need to be defined in relation to remote sensing data sources; and 3) cross-institutional participation in developing and reviewing such a framework on a long-term basis and the monetary cost. This paper will present how monitoring via remote sensing has been conducted in the past, issues to consider in developing a monitoring framework in this particular environment and a methodology by which to construct a robust framework.