Vegetation Mapping Low Lying Islands in the Pacific Using VHR Satellite Images Kataebati Bataua SPC-SOPAC

Purpose of Vegetation Mapping (Land Cover) Picture of available coconut palm resource (alternative energy, etc.)Picture of available coconut palm resource (alternative energy, etc.) Food securityFood security Base line of vegetation cover to monitor impact of climate changeBase line of vegetation cover to monitor impact of climate change

Display GeoEye Data Texture of GeoEye data allows to separate palm and natural forest

Texture and Pattern

Spectral Information False Colour Infrared Natural Colour

Vegetation Classes Coconut palm cover (3 densities !)Coconut palm cover (3 densities !) 1.Coconut plantation 2.Dense coconut 3.Scattered coconut ForestForest MangrovesMangroves ShrubShrub Settlement influenced areasSettlement influenced areas Bare Land (grass, none vegetation)Bare Land (grass, none vegetation) Water body (on the island)Water body (on the island)

Other Vegetation Classes (within Settlement Area) Not visible on the image data such as: –Breadfruit –Pandanas –Bananas Field sample plots required

The GIS Operators in KI AgricultureAgriculture EnvironmentEnvironment Lands DepartmentLands Department

Backup of Information SPC-SOPAC Fiji Agriculture Kiribati Environment Kiribati

Delineation of Palm Density

Selection of Plots Select plots that are covered within the stratum (like 150 plots that contains with the “Y”) Randomly select only 20 plots. Counting palms/hectare

Plots Containing the “Y”

Counting in MapInfo MapInfo automatically counts the number of palms within the plots using SQL select SQL Result

The number of palms is counted through a semi automatic process connecting MapInfo GIS software with Access Database software Transfer MapInfo (GIS) Access Database

Analysis in Access SumSum MinMin MaxMax MeanMean No PlotsNo Plots Area plotsArea plots Area StratumArea Stratum (Pot. No. Plots)(Pot. No. Plots)

Description of Stratum Average number of palms/hectareAverage number of palms/hectare Variability of the palm densityVariability of the palm density Exactness of countingExactness of counting For 20 plots(randomly) of 50 x 50 metres the coconut palms were counted in the stratum "Scattered Coconut" on the satellite image data. This represents an area of 17,507 m 2. This stratum covers 41,423 m 2 and theoretically 17 plots could have been analysed instead of 20. The number of palms varies from 12 (min) to 14 (max) which represents 48 or 52 palms/ha with an average of 49 palms/ha with very small standard deviation of +2 palms/ha and a standard error of

Needed for Productivity: Number of palms / hectare for dense standsNumber of palms / hectare for dense stands Age of palmsAge of palms Amount of hybridsAmount of hybrids Soil informationSoil information Transport distanceTransport distance 50 – 100% under estimation

Results: 25 reports are ready

Results in GIS Environment at SPC-LRD

Current Information Flow SPC-SOPAC SPC-LRD Island Country 1.Memory stick 2. External hard drive Server

Vegetation Monitoring ? SPC

Thanks