Forest Disturbance Assessment Using Satellite Data of Moderate and Low Resolution

Abstract

Envisat-MERIS and SPOT Vegetation satellite data were tested for estimation of vegetation cover disturbances caused by fire and industrial pollution in central and northern Siberian test sites, respectively. MERIS data were used to assess forest disturbance levels on burned sites in Angara region. Chlorophyll indexes (REP and MTCI) were found to allow identifying up to five forest disturbance levels due to high space-borne sensor resolution and sensitivity to chlorophyll content of vegetation. A comparison of these chlorophyll indexes revealed that MTCI to show chlorophyll contents fairly precisely and to be useful for quantifying and mapping forest damage levels on burns. The current vegetation condition was assessed using MTCI index in the northern (Norilsk) test region. The lowest index values calculated for the most severely disturbed vegetation near Norilsk were found to correlate with sulphur concentrations in larch and spruce needles. Another approach to estimating spatial and temporal trends of vegetation condition used the 1998–2005 SPOT-Vegetation satellite data. The relationships obtained between MTCI, NDVI values, and forest mortality were based upon to map the1998–2005 forest degradation zone dynamics in the northern test site.