Extending forest inventories and monitoring programmes using remote sensing: A review.

Abstract

This paper presents a review of remote sensing technologies that are applied in forestry. It presents an overview of the data sources and applications that are used to map, monitor and estimate forest parameters. In particular, it deals with methods that use data from space borne sensors as well as methods that utilise terrestrial, active remote-sensing methods. The paper also comments on techniques that have already been used in Ireland, but also discusses other methodologies that are relevant to the Irish forest sector, including supporting field based inventories, updating digital map datasets and providing high-resolution forest stand estimates at a range of scales. In addition, the paper presents techniques to monitor land-use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) and to upscale field plot measurements with remotely sensed data.