Monitoring of sustainable land management using remotely sensed vegetation cover, NSW, 2010-2021

This dataset provides maps and data that identify the sustainability of land management over NSW over the period 2010 to 2021. It is based on a new method for monitoring sustainable land management using widely available remotely sensed data: MODIS fractional vegetation cover data. The method relies on maintaining sufficient vegetation cover to prevent hillslope water erosion beyond tolerable soil erosion targets. The targets were based on long-term natural erosion rates plus a small constant and are spatially and temporally variable. Results were initially generated for individual months then were amalgamated into yearly sustainable land management indices (SLMI), presented as raster maps (100 m spatial resolution). These results were further stratified by land uses and natural resource management regions, revealing useful data and trends. Data on rainfall patterns over the preceding 12 months (relative rainfall index, RRI) can aid interpretation of the results. The method and sample results were presented in an international journal paper: Gray et al. (2023). Monitoring of sustainable land management using remotely sensed vegetation cover and variable tolerable soil erosion targets across New South Wales, Australia. https://doi.org/10.1111/sum.12876

Data Source:
  • SEED
Data and Resources
GEOTIFF
Sustainable Land Management Indices (SLMI), NSW, 2010-2021
GEOTIFF
Relative Rainfall Indices (RRI), NSW, 2010-2021
GEOTIFF
Working files for SLMI, April 2020
ZIP
Tolerable erosion working 2001-2021 working files
Additional Information
Field Value
Title Monitoring of sustainable land management using remotely sensed vegetation cover, NSW, 2010-2021
Date Published 06/04/2023
Last Updated 08/10/2025
Publisher/Agency NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water
Licence Creative Commons Attribution
Update Frequency asNeeded
Temporal Coverage 01/01/2010 - 31/12/2021
Geospatial Coverage
Data Portal SEED