Research Opportunity on Fractional Cover of Forest: A Bibliometric Review

Abstract

Forests are threatened globally by deforestation. Forest restoration at the landscape scale can reduce these threats. Ground-based and remote sensing inventories are needed to assess restoration success. Fractional canopy cover estimated from forest algorithms can be used to monitor forest loss, growth, and health via remote sensing. Various studies on the fractional cover of forest have been published. However, none has yet conducted a bibliometric analysis. Bibliometrics provide a detailed examination of a topic, pointing academics to new research possibilities. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first bibliometric study screening publications to assess the incidence of studies of the fractional cover of forests in Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus databases. This research analyses WoS and Scopus publications on the fractional cover of forest dating from 1984 to 2021. The current study uses the Bibliometrix R-package for citation metrics and analysis. The first paper on the fractional cover of forest was published in 1984 and annual publication numbers have risen since 2002. USA and China were the most active countries in the study of fractional cover of forests. A total of 955 documents from 69 countries with multiple languages were retrieved. Vegetation, forestry, and remote sensing were the most discussed topics. Findings suggest more studies on the fractional cover of forests algorithms should be conducted in tropical forest from developing countries.