Brief description
The MODIS Land Condition Index (LCI) is an index of total vegetation cover (green and non-photosynthetic vegetation ), and so is also an index of soil exposure. The LCI is a normalised difference index based on MODIS bands in the mid-infrared portion of the spectrum. The index is produced from 500-m MODIS nadir BRDF adjusted reflectance (NBAR) data. As with all products derived from passive remote sensing imagery, this product represents the world as seen from above. Therefore, the cover recorded by this product represent what would be observed from a birds-eye-view. Therefore, dense canopy may prevent observation of significant soil exposure.Lineage
Progress Code: completedNotes
CreditWe at TERN acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians throughout Australia, New Zealand and all nations. We honour their profound connections to land, water, biodiversity and culture and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.
Land Cover Index is relevant for image based soil exposure monitoring. Used for reporting: - all general seasonal patterns, and all major deviations from average seasonal patterns (e.g., unusually wet or dry years) - fortnightly changes in soil exposure, by reporting region, from 2000 to 2010 - magnitude of erosion vulnerability (duration of soil exposure multiplied by severity of soil exposure) - visualise change in land protected from erosion relative to 2003 LCI is capable of measuring trends in soil exposure over time, and how the LCI can be used to report against the South Australian State Strategic Plan (SASSP) soil protection target
Data Quality Assessment Scope
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dataset
Product completeness is dependent on the completeness of the underlying MODIS product, MCD43A4. The MCD43A4 product uses 16 day compositing to minimise the chance of failing to acquire data due to cloud cover, and to maximise the quality of the recorded reflectance. However, frequent cloud cover still prevents acquisition of data, most notably in the far northern tropical areas of Western Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland in the rainy season (November to April), and in Tasmania in the winter (June to August).
The LCI is an index of total vegetation cover (green and non-photosynthetic vegetation ), and so is also an index of soil exposure. Importantly this means that it is unit-less, and is not intended to report absolute vegetation or soil fraction. It may be possible to calibrate the LCI to absolute fractions for a specific region, with appropriate field data, as was done in Clarke et al., (2011).
Data Quality Assessment Result
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Quality Result
The LCI has been evaluated against two sets of South Australian field data; 1) field fractional cover (photosynthetic vegetation (PV), non-photosynthetic vegetation (NPV) and soil) measured at MODIS scale sites (15 sites, x 3 dates), and; 2) rapid field cover assessment data (> 5,500 sites x 4 dates). These evaluations are documented in Clarke et al., (2011).
Additional validation comparing LCI to the other AusCover fractional cover products and to SLATS field data is underway.
Created: 2014-03-26
Issued: 2021-09-23
Modified: 2024-09-23
Data time period: 2000-02-18 to 2011-11-09
text: Australia
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Point-of-truth metadata URL- URI : geonetwork.tern.org.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/1187da4b-a155-4174-ba4e-6bd80a1d48d4
- global : 1187da4b-a155-4174-ba4e-6bd80a1d48d4
