Characterization of vegetation structure in Gunung Halimun Salak National Park corridor with drone technology and Geographic Information System (GIS)

Abstract

Gunung Halimun Salak National Park (GHSNP) corridor is an area that connects Salak and Halimun Mountain, and has a role in animal movement, breeding and living. This study aims to characterize the vegetation structure in a restoration area in the corridor of Gunung Halimun Salak National Park. The vegetation characteristics was analyzed through structural vegetation datasets such as Canopy Height Model (CHM) and some vegetation indices namely; Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Ratio Vegetation Index (RVI), Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI), and Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI). Significance of the approach was evaluated by the Mann Whitney test. The results indicated that the restoration area of HSNPC consist of seedlings, saplings, poles and trees. GHSNP’s corridor canopy layer consists of five canopy layers, namely strata A (> 30 m), B (20 – 30 m), C (4 – 20 m), D (1 – 4 m), and E (0 – 1 m). The most important species are Schima wallichii, Agathis dammara, Bellucia axinanthera and Macaranga triloba. The effective vegetation index to see the differences vegetation structure are NDVI and RVI vegetation index.