Total cover - MODIS, Land Condition Index (LCI) algorithm, Australia coverage
The MODIS Land Condition Index (LCI) is an index of total vegetation cover (green and non-photosynthetic vegetation ), and so is also an index of soil exposure. The LCI is a normalised difference index based on MODIS bands in the mid-infrared portion of the spectrum. The index is produced from 500-m MODIS nadir BRDF adjusted reflectance (NBAR) data.
As with all products derived from passive remote sensing imagery, this product represents the world as seen from above. Therefore, the cover recorded by this product represent what would be observed from a birds-eye-view. Therefore, dense canopy may prevent observation of significant soil exposure.
Simple
Identification info
- Date (Creation)
- 2014-03-26
- Date (Publication)
- 2021-09-23
- Date (Revision)
- 2025-12-10
- Edition
- 1.0
Publisher
Author
University of Adelaide - Clarke, Ken (Academic)
Waite Road, Waite, South Australia, 5064, Australia
Waite
South Australia
5064
Australia
Co-author
University of Adelaide - Lewis, Megan (Head of School of Biological Sciences)
Waite Road, Waite, South Australia, 5064, Australia
Waite
South Australia
5064
Australia
- Website
- https://www.tern.org.au/
- Purpose
- Land Cover Index is relevant for image based soil exposure monitoring. Used for reporting: - all general seasonal patterns, and all major deviations from average seasonal patterns (e.g., unusually wet or dry years) - fortnightly changes in soil exposure, by reporting region, from 2000 to 2010 - magnitude of erosion vulnerability (duration of soil exposure multiplied by severity of soil exposure) - visualise change in land protected from erosion relative to 2003 LCI is capable of measuring trends in soil exposure over time, and how the LCI can be used to report against the South Australian State Strategic Plan (SASSP) soil protection target
- Credit
- We at TERN acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians throughout Australia, New Zealand and all nations. We honour their profound connections to land, water, biodiversity and culture and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.
- Status
- Completed
Point of contact
University of Adelaide - Clarke, Ken (Academic)
Waite Road, Waite, South Australia, 5064, Australia
Waite Road
Waite
South Australia
5064
Australia
- Topic category
-
- Environment
Extent
- Description
- Australia
N
S
E
W
))
Temporal extent
- Time period
- 2000-02-18 2011-11-09
- Title
- Clarke, K., Lewis, M., Dutkiewicz, A., Forward, G., and Ostendorf, B., (2011) Spatial and Temporal Monitoring of Soil Erosion Risk with Satellite Imagery. Land Condition Monitoring Reports, Report 4. The University of Adelaide
- Website
-
Clarke, K., Lewis, M., Dutkiewicz, A., Forward, G., and Ostendorf, B., (2011) Spatial and Temporal Monitoring of Soil Erosion Risk with Satellite Imagery. Land Condition Monitoring Reports, Report 4. The University of Adelaide
Related documentation
- GCMD Science Keywords
- ANZSRC Fields of Research
- TERN Platform Vocabulary
- TERN Instrument Vocabulary
- TERN Parameter Vocabulary
- QUDT Units of Measure
- GCMD Horizontal Resolution Ranges
- GCMD Temporal Resolution Ranges
- Keywords (Discipline)
-
- LCI
Resource constraints
- Use limitation
- The Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license allows others to copy, distribute, display, and create derivative works provided that they credit the original source and any other nominated parties. Details are provided at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
- File name
- 88x31.png
- File description
- CCBy Logo from creativecommons.org
- File type
- png
- Title
- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
- Alternate title
- CC-BY
- Edition
- 4.0
- Access constraints
- License
- Use constraints
- Other restrictions
- Other constraints
- TERN services are provided on an "as-is" and "as available" basis. Users use any TERN services at their discretion and risk. They will be solely responsible for any damage or loss whatsoever that results from such use including use of any data obtained through TERN and any analysis performed using the TERN infrastructure. <br />Web links to and from external, third party websites should not be construed as implying any relationships with and/or endorsement of the external site or its content by TERN. <br /><br />Please advise any work or publications that use this data via the online form at https://www.tern.org.au/research-publications/#reporting
- Other constraints
- Please cite this dataset as {Author} ({PublicationYear}). {Title}. {Version, as appropriate}. Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network. Dataset. {Identifier}.
Resource constraints
- Classification
- Unclassified
Distribution Information
- Distribution format
-
- NetCDF
Distributor
Distributor
Distribution Information
- Distribution format
-
Distributor
Distributor
Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
80 Meiers Road, Indooroopilly, Queensland, 4068, Australia
Indooroopilly
Queensland
4068
Australia
- OnLine resource
- Cloud Optimised GeoTIFFs - Land Condition Index (LCI)
- OnLine resource
-
land_condition_index_total_cover
Total cover - MODIS, Land Condition Index
- OnLine resource
- Landscape Data Visualiser - Total cover
- OnLine resource
- ro-crate-metadata.json
Data quality info
- Hierarchy level
- Dataset
- Other
- Product completeness is dependent on the completeness of the underlying MODIS product, MCD43A4. The MCD43A4 product uses 16 day compositing to minimise the chance of failing to acquire data due to cloud cover, and to maximise the quality of the recorded reflectance. However, frequent cloud cover still prevents acquisition of data, most notably in the far northern tropical areas of Western Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland in the rainy season (November to April), and in Tasmania in the winter (June to August). The LCI is an index of total vegetation cover (green and non-photosynthetic vegetation ), and so is also an index of soil exposure. Importantly this means that it is unit-less, and is not intended to report absolute vegetation or soil fraction. It may be possible to calibrate the LCI to absolute fractions for a specific region, with appropriate field data, as was done in Clarke et al., (2011).
Report
Result
- Statement
- The LCI has been evaluated against two sets of South Australian field data; 1) field fractional cover (photosynthetic vegetation (PV), non-photosynthetic vegetation (NPV) and soil) measured at MODIS scale sites (15 sites, x 3 dates), and; 2) rapid field cover assessment data (> 5,500 sites x 4 dates). These evaluations are documented in Clarke et al., (2011). Additional validation comparing LCI to the other AusCover fractional cover products and to SLATS field data is underway.
Reference System Information
- Reference system identifier
- EPSG/EPSG:4326
- Reference system type
- Geodetic Geographic 2D
Metadata
- Metadata identifier
-
urn:uuid/1187da4b-a155-4174-ba4e-6bd80a1d48d4
- Title
- TERN GeoNetwork UUID
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
Point of contact
Type of resource
- Resource scope
- Dataset
- Metadata linkage
-
https://geonetwork.tern.org.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/1187da4b-a155-4174-ba4e-6bd80a1d48d4
Point-of-truth metadata URL
- Date info (Creation)
- 2014-03-26T00:00:00.000000+00:00
- Date info (Revision)
- 2025-12-10T09:57:50.373628+00:00
Metadata standard
- Title
- ISO 19115-1:2014/AMD 1:2018 Geographic information - Metadata - Fundamentals
- Edition
- 1
Metadata standard
- Title
- ISO/TS 19115-3:2016
- Edition
- 1.0
Metadata standard
- Title
- ISO/TS 19157-2:2016
- Edition
- 1.0
- Title
- Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-3:2016 and ISO 19157-2:2016
- Date (published)
- 2021
- Edition
- 1.0
Identifier
Overviews
Spatial extent
N
S
E
W
Provided by
Associated resources
Not available