Green Accumulation Index - NSW

The Landsat-derived fractional cover layer gives the amount of bare ground, green vegetation, and dead vegetation for each pixel on a specific date. The landscape of NSW undergoes a large variation in greenness throughout the seasonal and drought cycles. Information about the variation in greenness can be useful for a variety of mapping and planning tasks. Areas of green vegetation are important for native species habitat and human recreation activities. Green areas in the landscape are often related to the availability of near surface water or recent inundation, such as bogs, swamps and mires. These green areas are important for native plants and animals as locations of food and water in dry times.

The green fraction has been analysed for a sequence of images to show how long an area stays green following a greening event, such as grass growth in response to rainfall. The map of green accumulation for NSW was created from Landsat images from 1988 to 2012. Areas exhibiting the highest values are the areas of NSW that respond with high green cover for a long period after a greening event.