Study area
Two floodplain regions in the southern MDB, Yanga National Park and
Barmah National Park (Figure 1), were selected for this investigation
based on local knowledge and availability of LiDAR remote sensing for
training data. Yanga National Park (34°27’S, 143°48’E) forms a large
component of the Lower Murrumbidgee floodplain which lies along a
section of the Murrumbidgee River in New South Wales (Doody et
al. , 2015). Barmah National Park (36°00’S, 144°56’E), is located to the
south-east of Yanga in the Barmah-Millewa Forest along the River Murray.
Both floodplain systems are composed of the native riparian tree
species, Eucalyptus camaldulensis (River Red Gum) as well asE. largiflorens (Black Box). Notably, Barmah National Park is
home to the largest E. camaldulesis forest in the world and is
thus recognised under the Ramsar Convention (Hale and Butcher, 2011).
Both regions are semi-arid with low annual precipitation with
~425 and 323 mm year-1 at Barmah and
Yanga respectively (Bureau of Meteorology, 2020), and high evaporative
demand (~1600 mm year-1; The Long
Paddock, Queensland Government). Austral summers are hot with mean
maximum temperature between 31-33OC, while winter is
cool with mean maximum temperature of 14-16 OC (Bureau
of Meteorology, 2020).