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Mapping forest loss &

degradation using

satellite imagery

Paul Gager

Technical Director

Drivers of Deforestation and

Degradation

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Logging

(Mechanized)

Agro-Forestry

Plantations

Infrastructure and

Land Development

Logging

(Artisanal/RIL –

reduced impact

logging)

Swidden

Agriculture

Wildfires

Why monitor ?

• Land use management

• Protected area management

• Forest resource management

• Forest Carbon assessment

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Platforms – UAV

• User can own the system

– Coverage of large areas difficult

– Operational expenses; vehicles, staff, spare

parts

– Need to train and manage skilled staff

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Platforms – VHR Satellite Imagery

• Very High Resolution Satellite Imagery

– Very effective, but high cost

– Some expertise required to process

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Platforms- Mid resolution satellite

• Good trade off between cost and coverage

• Can detect changes in canopy,

construction of roads, skid trails

• May not identify individual tree loss

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RapidEye – 5m pixels

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One year later

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Mid res compared to Aerial Photo

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Platforms – Low and Mid-res

• Often free or very low cost

• Mainly useful for land conversion mapping

or mapping very large areas

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Mapping Techniques

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Manual Approaches: Inconsistent

Mapping Between Years

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Another example..

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Segmentation and Classification

15Original Image Image Objects Classified Image

Ground Truth Data

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Ground Truth Data

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Mapping Change

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Year 1 Year 2

Change Image

Classification of Change

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Natural Deforestation

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Questions ?

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