Mapping and modeling tropical defoliation: A case study on the effects of Plan Colombia.

摘要

This research explores the effects of aerial fumigation as part of the Drug War on Putumayo, Colombia. Green fractional coverage (fc) is examined in a time series of Landsat ETM+ images to quantify and describe the damage resulting from fumigation. No studies have attempted to quantify these effects.; I used remote sensing technology and fieldwork to build a direct parameterization of surface phenomena and a classification of landuse and landcover (LULC) types. This was accomplished by using fc as a biophysical variable that characterized the effects of defoliation and a hybrid classification method of LULC. I validating the use of fc by collecting ground truth data to show the linear relationship that exists between image fc and ground fc. I proved that Plan Colombia spraying during 2002 was not discriminate over the landscape by relating LULC classes to changes in fc over space and time.