Multi-resolution time series imagery for forest disturbance and regrowth monitoring in Queensland, Australia

- Establishing stable vegetation reference sites with repeated LiDAR and aerial photography
- Forest change mapping for clearing and re-clearing sites with a STARFM generated 12 year time series
- Estimation of forest regrowth with a time series breakpoint analysis using BFAST

High spatio-temporal resolution optical remote sensing data provide unprecedented opportunities to monitor and detect forest disturbance and loss. To demonstrate this potential, a 12-year time series (2000 to 2011) with an 8-day interval of a 30 m spatial resolution data was generated by the use of the Spatial and Temporal Adaptive Reflectance Fusion Model (STARFM) with Landsat sensor observations and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data as input. The time series showed a close relationship over homogeneous forested and grassland sites, with r2 values of 0.99 between Landsat and the closest STARFM simulated data; and values of 0.84 and 0.94 between MODIS and STARFM. The time and magnitude of clearing and re-clearing events were estimated through a phenological breakpoint analysis, with 96.2% of the estimated breakpoints of the clearing event and 83.6% of the re-clearing event being within 40 days of the true clearing. The study highlights the benefits of using these moderate resolution data for quantifying and understanding land cover change in open forest environments.