University of Twente Student Theses
Remote sensing analysis of the vegetation condition of the Białowieza forest
Yetemegn, Selamawit (2013) Remote sensing analysis of the vegetation condition of the Białowieza forest.
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| Abstract: | Vegetation Condition (VC) has emerged in to fundamental concept in forest studies. This is because it includes the aspects of quality and health in addition to the conventional approaches of forest extent and quantities of wood applied in forest studies. In this study remote sensing based spatio-temporal analysis have been applied to detect and map the vegetation condition of the Białowieza Forest and to compare the condition of the different forest zones namely the oldest and the current Białowieza National Park (BNP), nature reserves, managed forest and open areas. The main objective of the research was to analyze the vegetation condition of the Białowieza Forest using Landsat TM and field measured hyper spectral reflectance data. The study was conducted for the northern hemisphere vegetation growing season ( April to end of September) 2011. The analysis was carried out using vegetation indices and statistical methods. Landsat TM driven NDVI, NDWI and MSI have resulted in fairly strong correlation (r>0,8) with field measured NDVI, NDWI and MSI data. This has illustrated that vegetation indices produced from moderate resolution satellite datasets can be used for precise detection and estimation of vegetation condition spatially and temporally. The result of this study has demonstrated that atmospheric correction and haze removal are essential parts of pre-processing in the analysis of vegetation indices. Indices that are particularly computed along the visible and NIR spectrum are highly affected by atmospheric interaction. In this study, atmospheric correction and haze removal have resulted in significant difference (p<0,01). Overlooking the effects of the atmosphere can therefore, create discrepancies in the analysis and significantly affect the application of satellite data. In general, more than 80% of the vegetation in Białowieza forest had good condition. The managed and open zone had significant differences (p<0,01) from the strictly protected Old BNP, BNP and actively protected nature reserves. The managed zone had the highest condition and the open zone had the lowest. The results have also highlighted the role of vegetation condition as reflection to the type and intensity of management or conservation practices implemented on forests. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | ITC: Faculty of Geo-information Science and Earth Observation |
| Programme: | Geoinformation Science and Earth Observation MSc (75014) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/93805 |
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