Summary

Monitoring of the natural vegetation, water resources and soil conditions through remote sensing within a GIS framework, backed up by ground measurements, is an essential element of good range management. Practices that increase productivity and sustainability of rangeland can be identified and promoted. Inputs were made to collaborative work on the application of remote sensing methods to rangeland and pastoral area planning and management. A review of the literature on the derivation, calibration and accuracy of vegetation indices based on remotely sensed data and applications in range vegetation mapping, condition monitoring and productivity estimation has been completed. Low resolution systems still have significant limitations for these applications, although there are options for derivation of additional indices over seasons and years which have not yet been fully developed and tested.