National Protected Cropping Map nears completion but still open for more data

That's one of the surprises to emerge from the first national map of protected cropping facilities which is starting to wrap up.

Led by UNE's Applied Agricultural Remote Sensing Centre (AARSC), the National Protected Cropping Map is aiming to plot all the nation's commercial glasshouses, polyhouses, polytunnels, shade houses, and permanent netting structures larger than 2000m, with the map to be made publicly available online.

It follows the precedent of the pioneering Australian Tree Crop Map, also developed by AARSC.

The Centre's initial survey of the nation's protected cropping systems has documented 13,763 ha of structures- 4405 hectares of greenhouses (including glasshouses, polyhouses and polytunnels) and 9358ha of nets (shadehouses and permanent nets).

This first draft mapping of Protected Cropping Systems can be viewed through the Australian PCS Dashboard.

When complete, the map will provide the protected cropping industries with a tool for capitalising on opportunities and responding to biosecurity threats.

Protected Cropping Australia chair Matthew Plunkett said not having an accurate measure of production area can result in highly inaccurate pre-harvest yield forecasts, potentially causing poor forward selling estimates for both domestic and overseas markets.

"Identifying the location of specific farming systems also supports improved decision-making around extent (area) of production and annual changes, infrastructure planning, labour, transport and storage logistics, advocacy at all levels of government as well as serve as an essential tool for improved biosecurity preparedness and natural disaster response and recovery," Mr Plunkett said.

Hort Innovation's head of research and development Byron De Kock said understanding the distribution and area of specific crops is also invaluable in times of crisis.

"Knowing where crops are located supports improved response to biosecurity incursions, including the establishment of exclusion zones and the coordination of on-ground surveillance, and for quantifying the area of crops affected following a natural disaster," Mr De Kock said.

AARSC is drawing on a range of techniques to create the protected cropping systems map.

AARSC director Professor Andrew Robson said as with the Australian Tree Crop Map, the map is being built via the integration of industry data, image analytics, ground validation and citizen science.

"Like its predecessor, the outcomes of this project will meet Australian mapping standards, be freely available and will respect growers' privacy by not including any personal grower or crop information," he said.

The map-building starts with satellite imagery passed through machine learning (ML) using custom algorithms to provide an prediction of likely protected cropping structures.

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Remote sensing data is then cross-referenced with information from government, Local Land Services (LLS) and industry - these entities also provide their own additional data - to compile initial draft regional maps.

To refine the ground-truthing process, the draft maps are published in an interactive web-based map where interested parties, including protected cropping producers, can review and comment on the map using the Industry Engagement Web Application (IEWA) and the PCS Survey App.

The AARSC project team uses this feedback to further refine and improve the map.

AARSC lead commodity mapping researcher Craig Shephard said engaging with stakeholders was essential in building an accurate map.

"Direct participation from industry also offers some ownership of the process, and therefore a greater likelihood the final mapping will be widely promoted and adopted post development," he said.

"Anyone can contribute and add to our database using the location-based tools in our industry applications gallery (www.une.edu.au/webapps).

"They can also provide feedback directly on the map as comments, including specifying the locations of new and future crops."

The interactive Australian PCS Dashboard offers a variety of perspectives of the nation's protected cropping industry.

At national scale, clicking the map returns the total area of each structure type by state and territory, while zooming into the map shows Local Government Areas.

Zooming in to local scale reveals the PCS polygons, which can also be clicked to show information in a pop-up window.

Panning and zooming the map interactively summarises the total area of structures within the map view extent.

The project team aims to finalise the national baseline map in June, with further research and development of methods using machine learning for the automatic detection of PCS, as well as web-based applications to support industry in future maintenance of the map.

Stakeholders and growers are encouraged to contribute by viewing the draft mapping and adding their feedback to the research team.

AARSC is still seeking industry input via its Protected Cropping Systems survey.

Growers with protected cropping facilities not yet visible on the map can contribute to the project by completing a 60 second survey in just four simple steps:

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