Developing usable rangeland condition assessment tools

Posted on Jan 1 2019 by admin

This project involves developing usable rangeland condition assessment tools in the area of remote sensing.

Pastoralists can use information from range-land monitoring to improve management and long-term care of the rangeland resources, as well as track changes in livestock carrying capacity and native and feral wildlife activity.

Dr Ken Clarke’s research activities focus on making remote sensing and spatial science relevant.

“My team and I take existing research and convert it into useful information, using it to solve real-world problems,” Dr Clarke says.

“Or, if existing research is inadequate, we do the research ourselves, and then solve the management problem.

“We’ve got a long track record of working with government and industry and we frequently work across disciplines.

“Our experience covers a host of areas, including rangeland condition assessment; mapping seagrass meadows, and looking at how they’ve changed over time; developing ways to understand wetland inundation regimes, so we can manage them better; improving monitoring methods to help protect our arid mound springs; developing new ways of detecting and mapping bush-fire scars; and many others!”

Dr Clarke’s approach includes a strong logical basis for his team’s work, with firm roots in relevant theory - ecological, geological, remote sensing etc - as appropriate.

Sound literacy in critical thinking, computers and a specialist field such as ecology, geology, computer science, agriculture, astronomy, physics, robotics, or other are essential.

Some programming or scripting experience – for example, R or python) is ideal, but not necessary - you can pick it up as you go, it’ll be fun!

If you have your own ideas for an honours project, please contact Dr Clarke to discuss further.