Wind Erosion in Western Queensland Australia

Chapter 6 – Field Assessments and Model ValidationThis chapter reports on research to: 1) develop a field monitoring approach for visuallyassessing land susceptibility to wind erosion at the landscape scale; and 2) apply the data invalidating predictions from the Australian Land Erodibility Model - AUSLEM (Webb et al.,2009; Chapter 5). The chapter defines criteria suitable for evaluating land susceptibility towind erosion and describes application of the criteria to visually assess land erodibility overlong distances (10 3 km) using vehicle-based transects through the western Queensland studyarea (Figure 6.1). Finally, data from the transect studies are used for model validation.Figure 6.1 Location map showing major bioregions, Landsat ETM+ image scenes used for modelvalidation, transect observation tracks for data collected in September 2006, and vegetation covercalibration sites: 1) ‘Croxdale’, 2) ‘Lake Bindegolly’, 3) ‘Ethabuka’ (sand dune crest), 4) ‘Ethabuka’(dune swale), 5) ‘Diamantina National Park’, 6) ‘Spoilbank’158