| title: | Rates and patterns of forest cover change from mid-1980s till 2005 in the Eastern Baltic region, evaluated with multitemporal Landsat imagery |
|---|---|
| reg no: | ETF6845 |
| project type: | Estonian Science Foundation research grant |
| subject: |
4.3. Sylviculture, Forestry |
| status: | accepted |
| institution: | Tartu Observatory |
| head of project: | Urmas Peterson |
| duration: | 01.01.2006 - 31.12.2006 |
| description: | A series of Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+) images from late winter season will be used to classify forest from non-forest. The study is aimed at examining forest change resulting from forest clearcutting and from forest regrowth on abandoned agricultural lands. The data set to be used consists of Landsat images from mid-late 1980s (1985-1987), mid 1990s (1993-1996), early 2000s (2001-2003) and from year 2005. Very high resolution IKONOS and Quickbird images will be used for estimating reflectance changes at forest to non-forest boundary areas. Area of forested land will be calculated and landscape patterns of forest patches will be quantified for the administrative districts of Estonia, Northern Latvia and western regions of Pskov guberniya and Leningrad oblast in Russia. The significance of factors influencing the contrast of reflectance on a forest to non-forest edge and therefore affecting classification accuracy will be tested. The factors to be tested include the cardinal direction of the edge, tree stand parameters and time elapsed since edge creation. The findings of forest border delineation on satellite images will be used for clearcut mapping in the area of the Eastern Baltic region. Analysis of ground–based permanent plot measurements together with satellite image data will be used to estimate the extent of forest regrowth on formerly agricultural land in the region. |
| project group | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| no | name | institution | position | |
| 1. | Urmas Peterson | Tartu Observatoorium | ||