Remote Sensing of Forest Resources: Theory and application

Part 1 Background to remote sensing of forest resources: development of remote sensing - airborne and satellite remote sensing reflective properties of tree foliage - leaf structure and pigments, radiant geometry, spectral reflective characteristics, thermal infrared reflectivity and emissivity. Part 2 Collection of remotely sensed data for forest records: aerial photography - cameras, fil-filter combination, processing and printing flight planning - in flight factors, ground control, costs, technical specifications electro-optical sensing and side looking airborne radar - passive microwave image sensing, radar satellite remote sensing - earth resources satellite systems, data processing, planning, choice of dish, telecommunication aids. Part 3 Image analysis in forestry: visual imagery analysis - testing vision, stereoscopes, diagnostic elements, preliminary aids, equipment elements of photogrammetry - scribing vertical aerial photographs, geometric characteristics, parallax measurement, satellite photography computer assisted image analysis - image analysis systems, data storage, interactive analysis, accuracy. Part 4 Data integration for forest resources: thematic mapping in forestry - map projections, photographs as maps, developing and finalizing the forest map, instruments, digital mapping spatial information systems for forest resources, manual systems, GIS database, input and output. Part 5 Remotely sensed data in forest practice: planning for remote sensing applications - programme formulation, structuring the system education and training phytogeomorphic and land use considerations - geomorphic and vegetal factors, combining landforms and vegetation airborne remote sensing application - constraints of forest composition, aerial photographic scale, high altitude and small format aerial photography, forest damage, side looking airborne radar tree and forest stand measurements from aerial photographs - tree and stand measurements, timber volume estimates, aerial volume tables, conservation measurement satellite remote sensing application - application of visual and computer assisted analysis, synthetic aperture radar, environmental satellites statistical considerations in forest fieldwork using aerial photographs and satellite data - forest stratification, sampling, sub-sampling towards the global monitoring of forest change using satellite data - technical considerations of monitoring by satellite, international considerations, the next decade. Appendices: units of measurement tri-lingual terminology - selected terms in English, French and Spanish.