There is a growing requirement for forest managers to monitor and report on the sustainable management of their forests and timber plantations. This in turn requires the application of accurate, repeatable and affordable methodologies aimed at measuring a suite of economic, ecological and social values, as well as productivity, vegetation recovery, etc…. The Forest Resources assessment team has scientific expertise in remote sensing, GIS, spatial modelling, biometrics (including sampling design strategies) and ground measurement methodologies. Application of these expert skills result in the delivery of quantitative information on the status and trends present in NSW native forests and plantations.
The 2022 NSW Forest extent layer was created by the NSW DPIRD Forest Science team applying spatio-temporal analysis of the 2017-2022 National Forest and sparse woody vegetation data (Version 7.0 - 2022 Release) (Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment, and Water's). The data is available on data.gov.au. The dataset was further analysed and masked to exclude non-forest areas and create a forest extent layer with a 20 percent canopy cover for the NSW UTM Zones 55 & 56. The mask layer includes various datasets such as NSW Land use 2017, State Vegetation Type map (SVTM), Land Zoning, Water body, etc. The DPIRD Plantation unit's Authorised plantation layer (current as Aug 2024) was used to characterise forest types, i.e. Native forest and Plantation.
The Forest extent data consists of two forest types: Native forest and Plantation. The data has been published on SEED data portal, click here to access the dataset and associated map service.
For more information please email masoomeh.alaibakhsh@dpi.nsw.gov.au.
A comprehensive NSW Land Tenure layer has been developed, integrating the latest and most reliable datasets sourced from various governmental authorities and departments. To the best of our knowledge, this layer offers detailed mapping of recent updates and changes in land tenure across the state. It includes information on land allocations, ownership transformations, and management updates, providing an up-to-date and accurate representation of land tenure in New South Wales.
The land tenure data consists of seven Tenure classes each class covering various tenure types. Tenure Class presents tenure classification of the dataset as Crownland-Leasehold; Crownland-Other; Indigenous Owned; National Park; Private; State Forest; and Unresolved Tenure lands. The data has been published on SEED data portal, click here to access the dataset and associated map service.
For more information please email masoomeh.alaibakhsh@dpi.nsw.gov.au.
The Forest Science Resources team has produced interactive reports on the NSW forest extent across various administrative boundaries. The reports provide detailed calculations of forest area by tenure across key forestry administrative boundaries such as IBRA, IFOA & RFA regions. Visit the NSW Forest area by Tenure dashboards page for more details.
The team will be producing more dashboards in the near future.
The Mechanical Fuel Load Reduction Trials are investigating whether mechanical fuel load reduction can reduce bushfire risk in an economical, socially acceptable and environmentally sound manner around key assets, such as conservation areas or townships, where prescribed burning is undesirable for a range of reasons. Final report coming soon.
This project, funded in part by Forest Wood Products Australia (FWPA), investigated methods to link ground-based 3D point cloud LiDAR data with high-density aerial LiDAR and potentially satellite-based (GEDI) LiDAR data for the purpose of characterising the complex structure of moist eucalypt forests compared to manual collection methods. Report submitted to FWPA, FWPA project PNC546-2021 awaiting publication.
The project is a proof-of-concept study to determine the feasibility of:
Structural information can be used in the following operational areas:
This project reports to LLS on the following themes on the Private Forests of NSW
This project assessed extent and status of private native forests (PNF) on the North Coast. The project saw more than 600 landholders, contractors and industry representatives interviewed or surveyed, as well as more than five million hectares mapped, and one million hectares of timber resources assessed using aerial photography.
The Forest Resources team has published papers and reports in many research areas including but not limited to:
John Samuel | Leader & Project Forester
john.samuel@dpi.nsw.gov.au
Masoomeh Alaibakhsh | Spatial Modeller
masoomeh.alaibakhsh@dpi.nsw.gov.au
Mingzhu Wang | Remote Sensing Scientist
mingzhu.wang@dpi.nsw.gov.au
Andres Hernandez Gutierrez | Data Scientist
andres.hernandezgutierrez@regional.nsw.gov.au
Christine Stone | Visiting Research Scientist
christine.stone@dpi.nsw.gov.au