5:15 PM - 7:15 PM
[STT40-P04] Characteristics of Forest Products Using Satellite Data and Temporal Analysis of Forest Area Changes in Hokkaido
Keywords:Global forest/non-forest map, Temporal Analysis of Forest Area Changes, Accuracy Assessment
Forests play an important role in the global environment, such as mitigating global warming by absorbing carbon dioxide and preventing landslides through the growth of tree roots. The problem of aging and decreasing the number of forestry workers, responsible for the maintenance of forests to fulfill their multifaceted functions, has become an issue. Satellite remote sensing is one of the effective solutions to these problems, as it enables observation of forests over a wide area without requiring a large number of personnel. Furthermore, by using forest products classifying the earth's surface into forested, non-forested, and water areas, it is possible to monitor changes in the world's forests on a pixel-by-pixel basis in a timely manner.
In this study, after evaluating the accuracy of the forest products, we analyze the forest area in Hokkaido, the largest forest area in Japan and is suitable for the analysis of forest area change using forest products. The objective of this study is to indicate that forest products are effective in measuring forest area and monitoring its change through analysis of the amount of change in the forest area throughout Hokkaido and its local areas. The goal of this study is to make the products useful for sustainable forest management, i.e., to enable the use of the products in the selection of afforestation sites, which currently requires a lot of manpower and in the restoration of the forests after disasters.
The accuracy of the forest products was evaluated in Tochigi Prefecture by comparison with field data, and the classification accuracy of the product was approximately 90 %. The results of the forest area analysis showed that the total forest area in Hokkaido has changed by 175,465 ha in the past three years, and that it is possible to analyze the forest area in pixel units, such as the decrease in forest area due to disasters and the increase due to afforestation. Future issues include taking of non-forested areas in the accuracy assessment, and considering the range of tree canopy coverage from 10% to 90%, and above 90%, which were not considered in this study, in order to understand forest sparsity and density as well as changes in forest areas.
In this study, after evaluating the accuracy of the forest products, we analyze the forest area in Hokkaido, the largest forest area in Japan and is suitable for the analysis of forest area change using forest products. The objective of this study is to indicate that forest products are effective in measuring forest area and monitoring its change through analysis of the amount of change in the forest area throughout Hokkaido and its local areas. The goal of this study is to make the products useful for sustainable forest management, i.e., to enable the use of the products in the selection of afforestation sites, which currently requires a lot of manpower and in the restoration of the forests after disasters.
The accuracy of the forest products was evaluated in Tochigi Prefecture by comparison with field data, and the classification accuracy of the product was approximately 90 %. The results of the forest area analysis showed that the total forest area in Hokkaido has changed by 175,465 ha in the past three years, and that it is possible to analyze the forest area in pixel units, such as the decrease in forest area due to disasters and the increase due to afforestation. Future issues include taking of non-forested areas in the accuracy assessment, and considering the range of tree canopy coverage from 10% to 90%, and above 90%, which were not considered in this study, in order to understand forest sparsity and density as well as changes in forest areas.