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Assessing forest canopy closure in a geospatial medium to address management concerns for tropical islands—Southeast Asia

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Abstract

The present study outlines an approach to classify forest density and to estimate canopy closure of the forest of the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago. The vector layers generated for the study area using satellite data was validated with the field knowledge of the surveyed ground control points. The methodology adopted in this present analysis is three-tiered. First, the density stratification into five zones using visual interpretation for the complete archipelago. In the second step, we identified two island groups from the Andaman to investigate and compare the forest strata density. The third and final step involved more of a localised phytosociological module that focused on the North Andaman Islands. The results based on the analysis of the high-resolution satellite data show that more than 75% of the mangroves are under high- to very high-density canopy class. The framework developed would serve as a significant measure to forest health and evaluate management concerns whilst addressing issues such as gap identification, conservation prioritisation and disaster management—principally to the post-tsunami assessment and analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory for Spatial Informatics, International Institute of Information Technology, Gachibowli, Hyderabad, 500 032, India

    P. Rama Chandra Prasad & K. S. Rajan

  2. World Fish Centre, Batu Muang, Penang, Malaysia

    Nidhi Nagabhatla

  3. Forestry and Ecology Division, National Remote Sensing Agency, Department of Space, Balanagar, Hyderabad, India

    C. S. Reddy

  4. Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, India

    Stutee Gupta

  5. Aurora’s Scientific Technological & Research Academy, Hyderabad, India

    S. H. Raza

  6. Indian Space Research Organization, Department of Space, Anthariksh Bhavan, Bangalore, India

    C. B. S. Dutt

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  1. P. Rama Chandra Prasad
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  2. Nidhi Nagabhatla
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  3. C. S. Reddy
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  4. Stutee Gupta
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  5. K. S. Rajan
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  7. C. B. S. Dutt
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Correspondence to P. Rama Chandra Prasad.

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Prasad, P.R.C., Nagabhatla, N., Reddy, C.S. et al. Assessing forest canopy closure in a geospatial medium to address management concerns for tropical islands—Southeast Asia. Environ Monit Assess 160, 541–553 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-008-0717-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-008-0717-4

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