Assessment of the sanitary condition of forests using remote sensing

Abstract

The pathological drying of coniferous plantationsand mass damage of tree stands by pests and forestdiseases is observed in many countries in the worldand in Ukraine during last two decades. The areaof forests with unsatisfactory sanitary condition isincreasing. In sparsely forested Ukraine, the problems of forest degradation, reduction of its productivity and resistance to adverse environmental factors have become an argent due to the need for the transition to sustainable forestry.In recent years, there has been an intensificationof forest pathological processes in the forests of Ukrainian Polissya, which are chronic and lead to the drying of pine plantations. In many cases, significantdrying of stands occurs rapidly, often during one growing season, and in the medieval, ripening, ripe and overripe plantations of natural origin, in favorable conditions for the growth of pine forest plants. The main signs of modern forest degradation in Ukraine, as well as in Europe in general, include mass deforestation, increase in the number of pests and foci of fungal diseases in forest stands, weakening of homeostatic connections between individual components of forest coenoses, etc. Already in 2003, in the forests of the enterprises of the State Forestry Committee of Ukraine, continuous sanitary felling in drying plantations was carried out on an area of over 11.5 thousand hectares, and selective felling — on an area of almost 140 thousand hectares. The area of forests, which require the immediate implication and measures to control diseases and pests, exceeded 370 thousand hectares (more than 6% of forested land).Effective protection of forests from pests and diseases is possible under the conditions of prompt detection and monitoring of breeding grounds for pests and infections. In modern conditions, the remote sensing from the spacecraft, ie satellite monitoring of forest ecosystems, is a progressive and economically sufficient method for assessing pathological processes in forests