SPOT data in the digital mapping of Danish forests

Abstract

Satellite remote sensing has long been understood as a potentially efficient tool for forest management planning. In order to accelerate the integration of these two techniques, a major Nordic research project was launched in 1986. Research teams from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden cooperated in the project which was coordinated by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and financially supported by Samarbetsnämn‐den for Nordisk Skogsforskning. The results of the research project are being published as four separate articles in the Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research. In this issue, the work done at the Bureau of Land Data and the Forest and Nature Agency in Denmark is reported. Two images from the SPOT‐1 satellite have been analyzed. The separability of forest tree species in closed stands is investigated. A new classification method is presented, and test classifications with special emphasis on forest stands are made, using varying level of thematic aggregation. Mapping accuracies between 90 and 99% were found. Regeneration areas presented classification problems, and could not be mapped reliably. The use of auxiliary data, such as existing forest boundaries, may alleviate this problem. Preliminary tests on the use of image texture as auxiliary information showed promising results. Transfer of boundary lines from classification results to a GIS system was tested, and clarified the need for integration of image‐ and digital map data, in order to utilize the image data most efficiently in forest management planning.