Waikato Regional Council

Earth Observation Satellite Imagery to Detect Plantation Clearings

In the realm of natural resource management, satellite remote sensing stands out as a prominent and evolving technology. One of its pivotal applications lies in the monitoring of vegetation changes. This significance can be attributed to several factors, including the ready access to medium-resolution Earth observation satellite imagery, the continuous advancement of image processing algorithms, and the growth of cloud computing capabilities.
Waikato Regional council wants to assess the feasibility of a satellite remote sensing monitoring platform for detecting un-notified plantation clearings within the region. This initiative represents a proof-of-concept endeavour aimed at addressing a critical concern within the realm of natural resource management. The primary objective of this procurement is to leverage satellite remote sensing technology, in conjunction with readily available open-access satellite imagery, to detect and monitor plantation forest harvesting sites within the Region.
The buyer needs:
•A Respondent to provide the required services who has the systems, experience, and current capacity to achieve a successful outcome within the required timeframe.
•A functional, accurate, reliable, affordable, and scalable event detection framework for monitoring plantation forest clearance within Waikato Region, with response time suitable for compliance intervention.
•Accuracy assessment of framework performance.
•Refinement of framework parameters in pursuit of accuracy targets.
•A computing framework that is minimised to key functional outputs, for future affordability.