Satellite data for land use and land cover change in Australia
By Mazdak Ghasemi · Last checked 22 October 2026
Which satellite data is best for mapping land cover change in Australia?
A long, consistent record matters more than the finest pixel. Landsat has imaged Earth's land surface continuously since 1972 (USGS), and Digital Earth Australia's Land Cover maps Australia's land cover every year from 1988 at 30 m using Landsat 5, 7, 8 and 9. Sentinel-2 adds 10 m detail from 2015.
Which data to use
| Data | Resolution | Revisit | Record | Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DEA Land Cover | 30 m | Yearly | 1988 to 2025 | Annual land cover across Australia |
| Landsat 8 and 9 | 30 m | 16 days each, 8 together | From 2013 | Current change, consistent with the archive |
| Landsat 5 and 7 archives | 30 m | Archive | 1984 to 2024 | The years before 2013 |
| Sentinel-2 | 10 m | 5 days | From June 2015 | Finer detail for recent change |
| Queensland SLATS | Mapped from Sentinel-2 (Landsat before 2018) | Yearly reports | Comparable from 2018–19 | Woody vegetation clearing in Queensland |
How it is done
- Fix the period, then use imagery processed the same way for every date.
- Classify land cover for each date, or use DEA Land Cover's annual maps.
- Compare the dates, and check apparent changes against higher-resolution imagery or local data.
Limits to know
- Changing sensors or processing between dates can create false change; Queensland's SLATS clearing figures are comparable only from 2018–19, after its switch to Sentinel-2.
- Sentinel-2 starts in 2015, so earlier years need Landsat.
- Landsat 7 scenes since June 2003 have gaps from the Scan Line Corrector failure.
- DEA notes that where its Land Cover conflicts with state or local datasets, those datasets are authoritative.
Who does this in practice
- Digital Earth Australia's Land Cover turns more than 35 years of satellite imagery into annual land cover maps of Australia.
- Queensland's SLATS reports woody vegetation clearing each year; its 2023–24 report covers August 2023 to August 2024.
What Terrascout returns
The real result for “Map land cover change around Ballarat VIC from 2015 to 2025” (Ballarat, VIC), captured on 22 October 2026: the top 3 of 5 sources.
| # | Source | Type | Resolution | Cost | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sentinel-2 MSI | Optical | 10 m | No data fee | 97 |
| 2 | Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS | Optical | 30 m | No data fee | 94 |
| 3 | Landsat 7 ETM+ | Optical | 30 m | No data fee | 91 |