VLUIS: Annual Land Cover Mapping for Victoria

Annual land cover maps for Victoria, Australia, derived from MODIS satellite time series analysis from at least 2009 onward. The dataset classifies each pixel into dominant land cover types like Tree, Non-tree, and Water using a hierarchical rule-based system and seasonal vegetation indices. It is validated with a rigorous, stratified annual ground sampling program.

Use Cases

• Monitoring annual vegetation change based on NDVI and EVI time series.
• Validating land use models using the stratified ground sampling methodology.
• Classifying water bodies using the integrated GIS dataset of areas greater than 12.5ha.
• Analyzing seasonal agricultural or ecological patterns using the suite of 11 seasonal parameters.

Strengths

• Employs a rigorous validation protocol, splitting ground data into 50% for rule development, 25% for interim validation, and 25% for final independent validation.
• Uses a detailed methodological pipeline involving TIMESAT GUI and the Savitsky-Golay algorithm for smoothing time series.
• Has a documented history of error matrices produced for each annual dataset from 2009.

Limitations

• Column names and specific data structure are not provided in the source metadata.
• Sources conflict on the number of images in the time series, citing both 21 and 23.
• The exact spatial resolution and total row/pixel count are unknown.

Provenance

Source

Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (Victoria, Australia).

Collection Method

Created for the Victorian Land Use Information System (VLUIS) using time series analysis of NASA MODIS products (MOD13Q1/MYD13Q1) combined with annual stratified ground sampling.

Time Range

Annual data from at least 2009 onward.

Freshness

Last updated on 2026-04-27.

Geography

Victoria, Australia.