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EFFECT OF ELEVATION ON FORST DECLINE IN THE KRUSNE HORY 
(ERZGEBIRGE) MOUNTAINS IN EASTERN EUROPE 
Thomas R. Watters 
Michael J. Tuttle 
National Air and Space Museum 
Smithsonian Institute 
Center for Earth and Planetary Studies 
4th and Independence Ave., SW 
Washington, DC 20560, USA 
ISPRS Commission VII / Working Ciroup 6 
ABSTRACT 
Over the last two decades, the forests of eastern Europe have declined dramatically due to the effects of 
air pollution. Among the hardest hit forests are those in the Krusne Hory/Erzgebige Mountains that form 
the border between the Czech Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany. Relatively homogeneous 
forests of Norway spruce once dominated these mountains. The scale and course of the decline of 
Norway spruce forests in Krusne Hory/Erzgebirge Mountains is best visualized in images obtained by 
Earth-orbiting satellites, particularly Landsat. An important question in understanding the dynamics of 
forest decline in this region is the effect of elevation on forest damage due to air pollution. The 
relationship between the elevation of the forests and forest decline can be studied using the Landsat 
image data in combination with a digital elevation model of the Krusne Hory/Erzgebirge Mountains. 
Archive Landsat images of the study area covering a period from 1972 to 1990 were co-registered to a 
digital elevation model provided by the US Defense Mapping Agency. An analysis of Norway spruce 
forest cover as a function of elevation, normalized to the total surface area within a given elevation 
interval, indicates that the greatest loss occurred in forest stands were the 800 and 900 meters in elevation 
and that these stands were the first to exhibit dramatic decline. Forest loss, within the elevation intervals 
analyzed in the study area, is not uniformly distributed. Areas "hat experienced the greatest decline 
correspond to zones where the pollutant load appears to be the heaviest. 
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