Symposium on Remote Sensing for Resources Development and Environmental Management / Enschede / August 1986
521
Remote sensing methods of monitoring the anthropogenic activities
in the forest
V.I.Sukhikh
All-Union ’Lesprojekt’ Association, Moscow, USSR
ABSTRACT* Main directions of the Earth*s remote sensing data use for the monitoring of the
USSR forest fund changes caused by anthropogenic activities are considered* Indices charac
terizing the accuracy of determining the parameters of the monitored units by aerial space
photography and observations materials are listed*
Large-scale works on developing and remaking
of the whole regions and natural-territorial
complexes are characteristic of the second
half of the 20-th century. Such works are
carried out in the USSR in the European-Ural
zone, Western and Eastern Siberia, Far East,
Middle Asia and Kazakhstan* National econo
mic activities in these regions influence the
forest fund and tree-shrub vegetation* The
range of the anthropogenic activities having
an influence on the forest dynamics and sta
te is quite wide* It includes forest cutting
and reforestation, drainage, securing forest
growing, tree care, rock exploitation, civil
and industrial construction, forest fires,
agricultural development of the forest fund
lands, industrial effluents, recreation,etc*
The increasing versatile significance of
the forest on the one hand and the growing
anthropogenic influence on it on the other
hand put before forestry management organs
a primary and complicated task on the ratio
nal use and reproduction of all types of fo
rest resources and their useful properties*
But in order to solve it objective timely
information about the state of the tree-shr
ub vegetation and about all the important
changes in the forest fund is needed first
of all. As the forest fund area is large and
the access to it is difficult remote sensing
means are widely used in the USSR in order
to reveal, assess and take into account the
changes which occur in it* New methods and
technologies of forest study and control of
their dynamics and state are being worked
out, and the existing methods and technolo
gies are being improved by means of the mo
dem remote sensing means complex use, and
development of interpretation and mapping
methods•
Information is obtained with space and avi
ation observation means and ground spot in
vestigations* To carry out the photography
and monitoring from space artificial Earth
satellite (AES) of the 'Meteor' and 'Kosmos'
series, and long-term orbital 'Saljut' sta
tions (LTOS) ensuring the getting of multi-
zonal scanner and photographical information
with the resolution of 20m to 100-30Qm and
lkra are used, and instrumental-visual obser
vations are carried out* Aviation means make
it possible to obtain photographic informa
tion with the ground resolution of several
centimetres to tens of metres*
In choosing means and methods of informa
tion obtaining the optimization task is be
ing solved: minimal labour (especially in
the forest) and money expenditures, and maxi
mal necessary information by the volume and
quality* Space and aviation remote sensing
materials must ensure the getting of the
main information volume, and ground observa
tions have to be carried out only in those
cases when the remote sensing information
is not complete*
The greatest changes in the forest fund
result from clear cutting which is carried
out with the aim of logging and also clea
ring of the forest fund territory in the
process of economic development of the ter
ritories* Forest cutting involves the neces
sity of observing a number of rules regula
ting its organization, conducting and refo
restation on the cut areas* Hence the major
task is the control of the forest exploita
tion order which has to ensure the estimate
of the harvest cutting rules observance,
evenness of using in the region the forest
fund of different qualitative state (in or
der not to allow the immediate cutting of
the best by quality forests); cutover area
state assessment; specification of the re
maining forest raw materials resources; de
termination of the reforestation tendency
and the course of young growth formation on
the cutover areas* At present in order to
solve all these questions methods the tech
nical basis of which is the aerial photogra
phy materials have been developed and tested*
The method of control over the harvest cut
ting rules observance is intended for the
joint use of space photographs obtained from
'Kosmos' artificial Earth satellites and
'Saljut' long-term orbital stations* The com
parison of space photos of different photo
graphy years with forest management materi
als, plans of cuttings and cuts, topographic
maps make it possible to estimate the size
of each separate cutover (its length, width,
area), cutting techniques and their corres
pondence to the forest protective <
character
category and site class; direction of cut
overs, terms of their contiguity, number of
first cuttings in the quarter, their loca
tion relative to the relief forms, actual
cutting terms; the degree of the young-gro
wth safety, safety of the middle-age and
ripening stands, temporal forest seedling
plots*
Cutting volumes are measured by space pho
tos by measuring or automatized methods* The
comparison of data obtained by photographs
with the ground investigations results shows
that the systematic errors of the cutting