The ability to calculate ‘natural capital’ – an area’s natural resources and environmental features – offers new opportunities for producers, but the huge scale of Southern Rangelands properties presents challenges for its measurement.
A new project is tackling these challenges by investigating the potential of technologies installed in the field to measure natural capital – cost-efficiently and on a large scale.
The project scope is to digitise the measurement, management, and processing of biodiversity and soil organic carbon information.
Grower group Southern Rangelands Pastoral Alliance (SRPA) is leading the project and an additional project titled ‘Drone mounted species recognition’, after successfully submitting applications for innovation project grants offered through the SW WA Hub.
Technology at four sites has been installed on ‘Challa Station’, at Mt Magnet, with the project team currently working to address technical challenges relating to connectivity for the remote camera feeds.
Data generated from the devices is being transmitted through data platform ‘AxisStream’ and run through machine learning tools to develop plant species identification capability.
Four SensorC carbon probes have been installed, enabling the team to determine its potential to accurately measure soil carbon remotely across the Southern Rangelands.
This short-term project is among 10 diverse innovation projects that have commenced in WA after grants were awarded in 2022 by the SW WA Hub.
