NEW MAPPING PROJECT ASSISTING NQ BANANA INDUSTRY

A new mapping project is providing valuable information on the recovery of the North Queensland banana industry after the devastating effects of Cyclone Larry, Minister for Natural Resources and Water Craig Wallace said today.

Mr Wallace said officers from the department were working with the Australian Banana Growers’ Council and the University of Queensland to produce a detailed snapshot of banana plantations after the cyclone.

“Queensland’s climate is projected to become more variable in the future, with a likely increase in the intensity of extreme events, such as cyclones,” Mr Wallace said.

“Current and accurate information on the location of banana plantations will be very important in evaluating the risk of possible future damage from these events and for managing their potential impacts, such as pest and disease spread and communicating this with the growers.”

The project, which started in November 2006 and was divided into two parts, combined land use maps with high-resolution satellite imagery and recent aerial photos to give a clear picture of what happened to the banana growing areas around Innisfail after the cyclone.

“Land use mapping had been done on a state and regional level before, as part of the Queensland Land Use Mapping Program within NRW, but had not been done to map specific tree crops, such as bananas,” Mr Wallace said.

“Officers from the department in Mareeba undertook part one of the project by using the satellite images and photos to map the location and extent of banana plantations following the cyclone.

“The maps were then used by the University of Queensland for part two of the project to test new software for identifying the various colours, textures and patterns on satellite imagery.”

Bananas have their own special “fingerprint”, making them easy to see on a satellite image.

“The software has the potential to automatically detect and map banana plantations and could be used to produce the same sort of maps in the future. So far, the results have been very promising.”

The results of the joint project have been provided to the Australian Banana Growers’ Council, who commissioned the project.

The project will provide the Council with valuable information on the size of the industry in North Queensland following Cyclone Larry.

The results from the project will also be available to any other interested parties as digital data for Geographical Information Systems or a hard copy map.

“With the success of this project, future projects with other industries are now possible,” Mr Wallace said.

“This is a great example of different organisations working together to assist an industry after the hardships inflicted by Cyclone Larry.”

Media inquiries: Paul Childs, Craig Wallace’s office, on 3896 3689 or 0407 692 654.