Use of satellite images for geographical localization of livestock holdings in Brazil

Google Earth (R) provides free access to satellite images and has been used in several areas that require cartographic information. The present study assessed the inconsistencies between geo-referencing of livestock premises by GPS and the acquisition of geographic coordinates by remote sensing (RS) images provided by Google Earth (R) in the Brazilian states of Bahia, Distrito Federal, Minas Gerais and Parana. The overall mean and standard deviation of the distances in the study were 30.98 +/- 19.89 m. The mean distance differences between the two techniques were, for these states, 37.20 +/- 19.75 m, 28.38 +/- 17.38 m, 31.61 +/- 15.72 m, 28.43 +/- 24.30 m, respectively. Despite the fact that there is variation between the geo-referencing points using GPS and RS, geographical localization of health inspections should be useful as long as the errors between the results of the two methodologies are considered. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.