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DELINEATION OF ARAUCARIA ANGUSTIFOLIA IN THE FORESTS 
OF SOUTHERN BRAZIL USING SATELLITE IMAGERY 
M.A. Keech, A.A. Disperatti, O. Ganzel 
INTRODUCTION 
Araucaria angustifolia (Bert.) 0. Ktze, the Paraná Pine, 
is a tall, straight grained softwood of the genus 
Araucaceae within the family Pinaceae. It is one of 
fourteen species of this genus which occurs only in the 
Southern Hemisphere. Araucaria angustifolia is confined to 
the states of Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, 
where natural forests and plantations are found, and to a 
lesser extent in S&o Paulo and Minas Gerais in Brazil and 
in Missiones Province in Argentina. 
DEFINITION OF THE PROBLEM 
The Brazilian Institute of Forest Development is deeply 
concerned that continued extraction of the good quality 
trees, leaving only the less desirable classes, will lead 
to an irreversible genetic deterioration of timber quality. 
In order to monitor the rate of exploitation, and to prepare 
conservation measures, several survey systems were 
considered, but, only image analysis, using the CE. 100 
Image Analyser at the Brazilian Space Research Centre at 
S%o Jose dosCampos offered the possibility of carrying out 
the work in the time allowed. 
THE METHODOLOGY I 
Preliminary work at the Forestry School in the Federal 
University of Paraná in Curitiba, using 1:250,000 
monochromatic imagery of Band 7 revealed that Araucaria 
angustifolia had a characteristic dark spectral signature, 
Comparison, between interpreted Band 7 imagery and maps 
based on air photo interpretation and ground work carried 
out in two separate areas showed close correlation to exist 
between the intensity of grey tone and the density of cover 
This result is in line with that of Tucker 
  
of Araucaria.