A High Resolution Image Based Approach for Estimating the Canopy Cover of a Semi-Deciduous Brazilian Atlantic Forest Fragment

Abstract

The Atlantic Forest in Brazil has been suffering natural and anthropic perturbations over the years, which has been impacting, qualitatively and quantitatively, with different degrees and intensities, its canopy cover. These perturbations can be caused by the selective cut of species, burning, natural death of trees, among several other factors, which act directly on the composition and the floristic diversity of fragments of the forest. The main motivation for conducting this work was to alert about the relevance of the Atlantic forest conservation and the need for a constant monitoring system to preserve what has been left of it. This can be partially achieved by permanently estimating its canopy cover. This paper describes the implementation and evaluation of the descriptors: energy, entropy, homogeneity, contrast and the sum of the high-frequency Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT), for estimating canopy cover based on High Resolution Camera (HRC) satellite images. The analyses carried out based on the results of the experiments showed that the energy descriptor was the best descriptor among those used and, comparatively to the others, obtained the higher correlation (r), determination (R) and significance (p). Based on the experiments, the energy descriptor presented an expressive potential to be used in processes for estimating the canopy cover based on satellite images, in large areas of the semi-deciduous forest.