The role of Geographical Information Systems and Optical Remote Sensing in monitoring boreal ecosystems

摘要

The boreal forest is being impacted by human activity, primarily forestry and oil and gas exploration. The goal of this review is to provide an overview of the role that Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and satellite remote sensing play in monitoring boreal ecosystems, and to review some of the current issues being studied in the boreal region using these technologies. We find that investigation into the dynamics of land-use and land-cover change is greatly enhanced through the use of GIS and remote sensing. GIS offers the capacity for integrating spatial data of different types, including both raster and vector data models. GIS also allows for the analysis of landscape structure and response to habitat loss and fragmentation. This capacity will be crucial to monitoring the impacts of forestry and other industry in the boreal forests as the degree of disturbance increases, and to planning long-term sustainable use of the forest. Remote sensing is the only feasible method for the acquisition of land-cover data over large areas, and is well suited to regional mapping of land-cover and land-cover change detection. Vegetation indices derived from satellite imagery are useful for characterization of forest biophysical properties. There are certain limitations to these technologies however. Due to the susceptibility of spatial data manipulation to error propagation, there is need for increased focus on sensitivity analysis. The utility of data sets derived from remote sensing is limited by the spatial and spectral resolution of currently available sensors. The capacity to gather information over large areas and perform spatial analysis greatly enhances our ability to study the large-scale patterns and processes of the boreal such as natural and human disturbance, and to make predictions about the future as human impacts on the boreal increase.