Assignment 3
The purpose of this assignment is to understand how different remote sensing dataset can be compared and combined to extract forest inventory information.
Context
In England, the Forestry Commission are responsible for the protection and expansion of forests and woodlands. Among other activities they are also engage in producing timber for domestic and industrial use. The timber is generally grown in designated, managed timber enclosures – areas of land originally fenced off to keep out commoning animals which can damage young trees
The New Forest has 100 enclosures covering an areas of 8,500 hectares. Today these enclosures are not only important for producing timber but also for their conservation and recreation value. The New Forest produces approximately 50,000 tonnes of timber per annum, equivalent to over 2,000 lorry loads each year. The harvesting operations move around the forest’s timber enclosures on approximately a five-year cycle. To plan the harvesting carefully, quantitative data on age, height and width of their trees in any enclosure is needed
This information could be gathered by Forestry Commission field workers going to the designated enclosures to collect this information. However, over time remote sensing techniques have been developed which can gather the information required. They have collected both airborne multispectral remote sensing data using the Compact Airborne Spectographic Imager (CASI) sensor and first and last return Lidar data for some on their enclosures in the New Forest. For this exercise, imagine the Forestry Commission have approached you as a remote sensing expert to use their remote sensing data and give them some quantitative information about their enclosures.
Task
Using the data provided:
1) For each of their enclosures the Forestry Commission want you to provide information on:
(a) % of enclosure area with trees between 2 to 10 m high
(b) % of enclosure area with trees between 10 to 15 m high
(c) % of enclosure area with trees greater than 15 m high.
2) In addition they want the maximum, minimum and average height of:
(a) all trees within these enclosures and
(b) for each enclosure, trees greater than 15m high.
3) Assume that an enclosure with 40% of its area covered by trees greater than 15m in height is ready for harvesting. Order the enclosures by when they are ready to be harvested, soonest first.
Assignment
Your assignment should be self-contained report (maximum 2000 words) with an introduction justifying the use of remote sensing techniques, detailed methodology including flow diagram(s) and any limitations, results, recommendations and conclusion, all supported by the literature. Use figures and tables where necessary.
All data andĀ instructions are availableĀ on blackboard in the Assignment 3 Folder