Name: HCAS with plantation and large waterbodies mask
Display Field:
Type: Raster Layer
Geometry Type: null
Description: This dataset was produced by applying a mask to the HCAS version 2.1 (v2.1) data. The HCAS v2.1 product is a 9-arcsecond Australia-wide gridded raster dataset showing habitat condition. The product is derived from MODIS remote sensing data products for the period 2001-2018 and characterises each 9s pixel on a scale of 0.0 (habitat completely removed) to 1.0 (habitat in reference condition). This product has been updated to address (as far as possible) a number of known limitations identified in HCAS version 2.0 (beta - unpublished). These are detailed in the accompanying technical report for HCAS v2.1 (Williams et al. 2021 - Habitat Condition Assessment System (HCAS version 2.1): Enhanced method for mapping habitat condition and change across Australia. These enhancements include, but are not limited to: extension of assessment period to 18 years, 2001-2018; development of all remote sensing variables using MODIS collection 6 (formerly collection 5); stratified random sampling of spatial inference reference condition training data (c.100,000 9s grids of a much larger sample); landscape water distribution derived from a MODIS remote sensing algorithm ; coastal registration issues (especially western-aspects); snow line issues (montane seasonal variation); updated MODIS collection 5 to collection 6 remote sensing variables; refined 2D histogram (probability of being in reference condition) used in generating the uncalibrated condition algorithm; a non-linear calibration of habitat condition in the range 0-1. Limitations that remain will be addressed in future iterations of HCAS. These limitations include water bodies, salt lakes and plantation forestry. This masked dataset excludes these known limitation form consideration. The plantation and large waterbodies mask is a 9-second gridded spatial dataset with no-data fields excluding mapped large waterbodies and areas of commercial forest plantations. The large waterbodies are derived from the Geofabric AHGFWaterbodyLargest polygons (Bureau of Meteorology, 2012) and commercial forest plantations are derived from the Forests of Australia (2018) dataset.
The plantations and large waterbodies mask was developed using data from:
Montreal Process Implementation Group for Australia and National Forest Inventory Steering Committee (2018) Australia’s State of the Forests Report 2018. Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences, Canberra, Australia. (https://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/forestsaustralia/sofr/sofr-2018).
Bureau of Meteorology (2012) Australian Hydrological Geospatial Fabric (Geofabric) Product Guide, Version 2.1. Australian Government, Canberra. (http://www.bom.gov.au/water/geofabric/documents/v2_1/ahgf_productguide_V2_1_release.pdf).
Copyright Text: This dataset was produced by applying a set of masks to the HCAS data. The HCAS was jointly developed by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment as a collaborative research project.