The objective of this project to utilise high-resolution satellite imagery to map and monitor small water bodies and farm dams to improve grazing land management. The project aims to extract weekly time series of water areas from the satellite images, perform time series analysis to assess the shrinkage or expansion of the water bodies, water levels, and determine their precise locations.
The focus is on understanding the availability and dynamics of these water sources, which are vital for livestock, domestic use and wildlife habitats. The project also involves GIS analysis to calculate the average distance between each water body in each paddock of the properties.
This analysis aims to quantify water availability, the travel distances for cattle each month, providing insights into animal welfare, particularly during hot summer days. This analysis will be tested with landholders to improve property planning and livestock management in the dry season. More importantly, the analysis will be used to influence grazing management, particularly aimed at reducing calf loss due to dehydration.
A key outcome of the project will be to assist landholders to plan improvements in grazing land management, particularly water availability during dry times. Another outcome of the project will be improved water management through encouraging the decommissioning of small unreliable dams in place of reticulated water with pipe and trough setups.
This project also has support from industry through a partnership with Agbot, water monitoring and management tech company, and continue the growing partnership between Southern Gulf NRM and James Cook University.
This project received funding from the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.
