Abstract
The Operational Remote Sensing (ORS) program leverages Landsat and MODIS data to detect forest disturbances across the conterminous United States (CONUS). The ORS program was initiated in 2014 as a collaboration between the US Department of Agriculture Forest Service Geospatial Technology and Applications Center (GTAC) and the Forest Health Assessment and Applied Sciences Team (FHAAST). The goal of the ORS program is to supplement the Insect and Disease Survey (IDS) and MODIS Real-Time Forest Disturbance (RTFD) programs with imagery-derived forest disturbance data that can be used to augment traditional IDS data. We developed three algorithms and produced ORS forest change products using both Landsat and MODIS data. These were assessed over Southern New England and the Rio Grande National Forest. Reference data were acquired using TimeSync to conduct an independent accuracy assessment of IDS, RTFD, and ORS products. Overall accuracy for all products ranged from 71.63% to 92.55% in the Southern New England study area and 63.48% to 79.13% in the Rio Grande National Forest study area. While the accuracies attained from the assessed products are somewhat low, these results are similar to comparable studies. Although many ORS products met or exceeded the overall accuracy of IDS and RTFD products, the differences were largely statistically insignificant at the 95% confidence interval. This demonstrates the current implementation of ORS is sufficient to provide data to augment IDS data.
Highlights
The US Forest Service’s Forest Health Protection (FHP) program is tasked with protecting and improving the health of America’s rural, wildland, and urban forests
The Operational Remote Sensing (ORS) program was developed as a part of the Forest Health Assessment and Applied Sciences Team’s (FHAAST) Insect and Disease Survey (IDS) analysis and decision support tools
The overall accuracy of all outputs ranges from 84.86% to 92.55% in 2016 and 71.63% to 87.02% in 2017 (Tables 3 and 4)
Summary
The US Forest Service’s Forest Health Protection (FHP) program is tasked with protecting and improving the health of America’s rural, wildland, and urban forests. The Operational Remote Sensing (ORS) program was developed as a part of the Forest Health Assessment and Applied Sciences Team’s (FHAAST) Insect and Disease Survey (IDS) analysis and decision support tools. These tools assist FHP staff, state forestry agencies, and other forest managers to locate, monitor, and map forest health issues. These systems consist of tablet computers, GPS units, and specialized software that assist observers in an aircraft to map forest health issues [1] While system improvements such as the more modern DMSM have increased the consistency and quality of the IDS data, they have not significantly reduced the number of hours spent flying. While the need for reporting and analysis of ADS data remains, efforts are being made to integrate ground collection and satellite remote sensing to improve safety and quality of IDS data
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