Get reliable rangeland science

Rangeland occupies over half of the earth�s land surface by some estimates (51% - according to the World Resources Institute, 1986).� Canada is the second largest country in the world covering approximately 10 million km2.� How much of Canada is covered by rangeland and forages?� That is the question that prompted this project by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC).�AAFC has produced an Annual Crop Inventory map product since 2009 that shows the types of crops grown in Canada each year, including an estimate of the area of rangeland and forages.� AAFC hired Emily Lindsay, an MSc Candidate at Carleton University, to determine which variables derived from remote sensing and geospatial data can be most effectively used to produce increased classification accuracy of Canada�s rangeland and forage resources.� Field data related to land cover type and dominant species composition were collected during the 2015 growing season at study sites west of Brandon, Manitoba and near Lethbridge, Alberta. Multispectral imagery at two scales (RapidEye and Landsat-8) and Radarsat-2 imagery are being integrated into Random Forest classifications to determine variable importance, to aid in selection of appropriate variables for classification and to analyze the spatial distribution of classification quality for rangeland and seeded forage classes. Variables include standard multispectral reflectance as well as vegetation phenology and radar variables. Results will create a robust set of methods to support a future operational inventory of rangeland and forage resources to complement AAFC Annual Crop Inventory.