The difficulty in attributing any of the landcover change detectable
in the last image to landuse introduces the last landuse, "Unused".
A substantial proportion Australia, about 26 % or 1.4 million km2 (mostly
in Western Australia) is unused on any permanent basis. Two examples of
Unused are presented to illustrate two points.
The first image is of the Simpson Desert in the region of the South Australia/Northern
Territory border. An image from this area is chosen to demonstrate that
there can be extensive landcover change without the influence of landuse.
This is the converse situation to the Amata image.
Use your browser to open
each image in a new window to compare them.
Here in the Simpson Desert, there is an extraordinary landscape of long
linear dunes that support a landcover of spinifex grassland. This landcover
is readily ignited by lightning and depending on rainfall and fuel supply
will support extensive fires on a 5-10 year cycle.
Spinifex grasslands or similar landcover are widespread across the arid
core of the continent. Very large areas of the continent regularly burn
without any influence of landuse. As much as we understand the landcover
change that is a consequence of these fires, it is cyclic and without trend.
