Applying Spatial Analysis to Create Modern Rich Pictures for Grassland Health Analysis

Abstract

Grasslands are complex and heterogeneous ecosystems, and their health can be defined by the cumulative ability of their components to evolve, adapt, and maintain their integrity in the presence of stress/disturbance and provide ecosystem services. Herein, a design approach is used to generate alternative and multifunctional pastoral livestock production systems that enhance grassland health. As a way of understanding the complexity of grasslands and initiating the design process using systems thinking, rich pictures emerge as a useful method. As rich pictures are subjective views, geographic information systems (GIS) could be applied to improve the veracity of their outcomes, as both techniques are forms of an analytical process. This paper reports the application of GIS to a case study of a high-country farm to generate and combine different thematic maps to create a modern rich picture. The rich picture is a combination of remote sensing data (altitude, slope, aspects, and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)), and on-the-ground data (plant species distribution and diversity and soil chemical, biological, and physical parameters). Layers were combined using a multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) based on the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) to create a final rich picture. The results highlight dissimilarities in perceptions of what underpins ‘grassland health’ between researchers in different fields and with different perspectives. The use of GIS produced a modern rich picture that enhanced the understanding of grassland health and allowed for the identification of gaps, values, and possibilities for future research work.

Insights into Efficient Irrigation of Urban Landscapes: Analysis Using Remote Sensing, Parcel Data, Water Use, and Tiered Rates

“…We used the Excel app from Microsoft 365 along with SAS JMP Pro 16.1.0 for graphing and statistical analysis. Because of the large spatial scales involved, analysis of extensive landscapes often relies on remote sensing and GIS [45][46][47]. Using 4-band imagery, plant health can be assessed using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) [48].…”

“…Because healthy vegetation with more chlorophyll reflects higher levels of light in the NIR and absorbs light in the red band, the NDVI distinguishes between areas of thick, healthy plant life vs. unhealthy and/or sparse plant life and has been used to both monitor plant health and drought conditions [49][50][51]. Researchers have shown that NDVI is directly related to the photosyn- Because of the large spatial scales involved, analysis of extensive landscapes often relies on remote sensing and GIS [45][46][47]. Using 4-band imagery, plant health can be assessed using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) [48].…”

Creating a Design Framework to Diagnose and Enhance Grassland Health under Pastoral Livestock Production Systems

“…Another strategy is the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), a computational system that allows the analysis, creation, and management of spatial data. Geographic information systems are widely applied to Animal Science questions and can be used for land use/cover changes [ 223 ], land degradation [ 224 ] and grassland health assessment [ 4 , 8 ] by spatial analysis of multi-temporal data from a particular area. Geographic information systems generates a diverse range of information that can be integrated to produce useful outcomes that can contribute to the decision-making process [ 225 ] and allows the identification of suitable areas for specific purposes, such as adequate areas for specific plant species growth [ 226 ].…”

“…Ecosystem services are all the ecosystem functions and products that benefit and sustain human survival, life, and well-being, including the provision of food and water, pollination, regulation of climate, water and air, primary production and nutrient cycling, habitat for organisms, genetic resources, pharmaceuticals, and aesthetic/cultural values [ 5 , 6 , 7 ]. Therefore, grassland health can be defined as the ability of soils, microorganisms, flora, and fauna (including humans and grazing animals) present in the system to evolve, adapt and maintain their integrity in the presence of natural or human-caused stress/disturbance and provide essential components to sustain ecosystems [ 8 ].…”

“…A rich picture exposes a system to be seen as a whole, thus facilitating research and sensemaking [ 45 ], besides implementing an interdisciplinary approach. Readers are invited to see Pereira et al (2021 [ 8 ]) as an exercise of using rich pictures to enable discussions between different researchers with different backgrounds and disciplines to graphically represent grasslands and identify grassland components and processes to diagnose and better understand grassland health. Using systems thinking theory as a base approach, therefore, is paramount for the diagnostic understanding of grassland health for the construction of a framework that will guide the design of alternative, sustainable, and ethical livestock production systems [ 46 ].…”