In: Wagner W., Székely, B. (eds.): ISPRS TC VII Symposium - 100 Years ISPRS, Vienna, Austria, July 5-7, 2010, IAPRS, Vol. XXXVIII, Part 7B
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damages on tree level at the inventory points. The new
procedure must coincide with the monitoring standards of the
last years to continue the present time series.
2.1.3 Nature conservation: The management of nature
conservation areas (e.g. Natura 2000) should be supported by
remote sensing. Besides the information of a new regional forest
inventory, specific parameters have to be collected in the
protected areas e.g. dead wood volumes on stand level, single
biotope trees and specific topographical/hydrological features.
The linkage of protection areas to biotope networks needs
remote sensed data of linear biotope structures in open areas
(i.e. hedges) and of the fragmentation effects by infrastructure.
2.1.4 Forest Planning: Planning tasks generally can be
improved by the results of a new remote sensed based regional
forest inventory. Within the mapping of forest functions specific
tasks are the distinction of forest and open areas and the
classification of stand structures in regard to habitat, landscape
and recreational functions. In the case of the management of
mountain protection major inaccuracies can be eliminated by a
detailed detection of open forest areas, bare land and avalanche
zones. For the rehabilitation of mountain protection forests 5-
year information on tree species composition, vitality,
regeneration, ground vegetation, forest gaps, snow height and
snow dynamics should be supplied on stand and tree level
respectively.
2.1.5 Advice and financial support: The technical advice of
forest owners shall be improved especially in regard to the
expected climate change aspects. Therefore an integrated
information system is requested, which combines the results of
the regional forest inventory with data about forest owners as
address, forest ownership and financial aids. For the control of
granted subsidies very detailed information on project areas
(±10m 2 ), species composition (±5%), individual trees (i.e.
biotope trees) and unstocked areas (±10m 2 ) are needed.
2.1.6 Public awareness: Forest management relies on the
support by the public. Forest development and human
intervention must be understood by the people (e.g. the
adaptation of the present forest to climate change conditions).
Therefore the results of the remote sensing applications play an
important role for the information of the public with
quantitative data and visual media.
2.2 Demand on local level
A census of the forestry professional staff at the local forest
offices in Bavaria was conducted to derive the information
requirements on local level. The postal questionnaire
(Atteslander et al., 2008) consists of three parts: (a) Questions
on existing information gaps and presently applied remote
sensing techniques (4 multiple choice questions and 1 open
question), (b) Questions on potential fields of application for
remote sensing and on requirements for the determination of
forest parameters (12 multiple choice and 4 open questions), (c)
Voluntary personal information to build up a user panel.
The questionnaire was distributed to 655 individuals
anonymously. The evaluation of the questionnaire took place by
classification procedures for open questions and descriptive
statistics. 347 persons (52 %) responded to the questionnaire.
The results of the questionnaire were used to answer the
following research questions:
2.2.1 Can any benefits be expected from remote sensing
applications for forestry practice? Two-third of the
respondents indicated, that they can not sufficiently fulfil all
duties, because the required information is not available. 90%
of them expect that the information gap can be closed by remote
sensing.
2.2.2 Which remote sensing techniques are applied at
present? One-half of the respondents interpret visually official
aerial photos and satellite images from the internet. Frequently
agricultural information systems, which contain remote sensing
applications, are applied for forestry tasks.
2.2.3 What are the priorities for a better application of the
present remote sensing techniques? Two-third of the
respondents awaits a major improvement by more actual remote
sensing products - especially aerial photographs. One half
expects more information by a better quality of remote sensing
data. One fifth of the respondents claimed a higher repetition
frequency by high resolution remote sensing techniques.
2.2.4 What are the future potential fields of application for
remote sensing in forestry? 217 potential applications for
remote sensing were proposed. The main application fields are
the management of forest damages caused by natural hazards
and the consulting of private forest land owners.
2.2.5 Which forest parameters have to be addressed by
remote sensing applications? Out of 63 forest parameters the
determination of tree species composition, forest areas, forest
boundaries and forest stand heights are the most relevant (Table
1). This information should be available on an annual base and
at least updated every 5 years. In most cases there exist no
constraints concerning the recording period during the year. The
spatial resolution of the delivered information should be at least
on forest stand level.
Parameter Relative frequency
Tree species 12%
Area of forest, forest stands or damages 11 %
Boundary of forest, stands or damages 9%
Stand height 9%
Growing stock 5%
Forest stand age 4%
Forest stand density 4%
Location of logging roads 4%
Broadleaved/conifer stands 3%
Succession type 3%
Vitality 2%
Insect pests 2%
Forest gaps 2%
Forest regeneration 2%
Tree species mixture 2%
Table 1 Ranking of the 15 mostly mentioned parameters to be
collected by remote sensing
2.2.6 How should forest professionals be supplied with
remote sensing products? Two-third of respondents prefers to
work with standardized remote sensing products available
through a spatial forest information system. One tenth of the
staff would use remote sensing data directly or have a demand
for case specific data analysis by experts.
