Abstract
The objective of this study was to develop a technique to classify health of eastern hemlock stands using historical satellite images. While remote sensing and geographic information systems have been used successfully to classify forest health using recent images, applying this process to older images is problematic because contemporaneous field data are not available to measure the accuracy of the classification of historical images. Data ranges were established for each hemlock health class using a contemporary image and field data. These ranges were used to level-slice archived images to create a series of health-class maps that show changes in forest health over time. By applying cross-tabulation procedures to pairs of classified images, it is possible to construct a transition map that indicates how the hemlock health class of each pixel in the images of the study area has changed over time. The resulting maps provide a look back at forest conditions of the past and can be used to identify areas of special interest.
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Bonneau, L.R., Shields, K.S. & Civco, D.L. A Technique to Identify Changes in Hemlock Forest Health over Space and Time Using Satellite Image Data. Biological Invasions 1, 269–279 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010081832761
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010081832761