Urban Forest Canopy and Vegetation Height Analysis for Western Australia

Urban Forest Mesh Blocks data quantifies vegetation height strata and canopy coverage for land parcels across Western Australia. The dataset, produced by CSIRO using Landgate aerial imagery, categorizes land use into Street Blocks, Parks, Roads, and other types. It provides aggregated statistics for years including 2009, 2014, 2016, and 2018.

Use Cases

• Analyze total canopy coverage in square metres aggregated by MB_MonitorCategory to assess urban forest density.
• Model vegetation height strata areas (0-3m, 3-8m, 8-15m, 15+m) against land use categories like Street Blocks or Parks.
• Calculate canopy coverage percentages using the MBPercentage field to compare vegetation data completeness across different years.
• Map grass covered areas in the 0-50 cm range to study ground-level vegetation distribution by Local Government Authority.

Strengths

• Derived from Landgate's high-resolution aerial imagery processed by CSIRO, ensuring a scientific foundation.
• Includes data for multiple years (2009, 2014, 2016, 2018) enabling temporal analysis.
• Categorizes land parcels into seven specific land use types, including Street Blocks, Parks, Roads, and Rural areas.

Limitations

• Mesh block boundaries and areas (MBAreas) do not match official ABS mesh blocks due to parcel centroid-based assignment, limiting direct administrative comparisons.
• Parcel coverage for analysis varies between years, as indicated by the MBPercentage field, complicating consistent year-to-year comparisons.

Provenance

Source

Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage, Western Australia

Collection Method

Calculated from CSIRO's Urban Monitor mosaic derived from Landgate aerial imagery; land parcels sourced from the 2016 Integrated Land Information Database (ILID).

Time Range

2009, with additional years 2014, , 2018.

Freshness

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Geography

Western Australia, Australia