Assessment of Forest Disturbance
Using Landsat Satellite Time Series.
Case study: Southern Carpathians,
Romania
Ionut Sandric1,2, Alexandru Vasile2, Liviu Bufnila1, Florin Mihai2, Camelia
Semen2, Roxana Nazarie2, Florin Dumitrascu2, Simona Ipate2, Lucian Zavate2
20-22 May 2014 | ESA ESRIN | Frascati (Rome) Italy
Assessment of Forest Disturbance Using Landsat Satellite Time Series. Case study: Southern Carpathians, Romania
Objectives
• Indentify areas with change in forest cover
• Identify key points in time with significant changes in forest
cover
• Identify possible spatial or temporal patterns in forest cover
dynamics for ~ 29 years
Sentinel-2 for Science Workshop | 20-22 May 2014 | ESA ESRIN | Frascati (Rome) Italy
Assessment of Forest Disturbance Using Landsat Satellite Time Series. Case study: Southern Carpathians, Romania
Study area
Sentinel-2 for Science Workshop | 20-22 May 2014 | ESA ESRIN | Frascati (Rome) Italy
Assessment of Forest Disturbance Using Landsat Satellite Time Series. Case study: Southern Carpathians, Romania
NDVI Change 1975-2010
ArcGIS.com
NDVI Change
1975-1990
1990-2000
2000-2005
2005-2010
Sentinel-2 for Science Workshop | 20-22 May 2014 | ESA ESRIN | Frascati (Rome) Italy
Assessment of Forest Disturbance Using Landsat Satellite Time Series. Case study: Southern Carpathians, Romania
Data processing model
EarthExplorer USGS
Landsat
TM, ETM
Cloud masking
Radiometric
calibration to
reflectance
(python scripts)
Image
compositing
Thematic
change per
time interval
Image clipping and
reprojection in
Stereo 1970
(python scripts)
Image
mosaics/year
Image grouping
by years
(python scripts)
Supervised
classification:
forest and nonforest
Thematic
change 19842011
Sentinel-2 for Science Workshop | 20-22 May 2014 | ESA ESRIN | Frascati (Rome) Italy
Assessment of Forest Disturbance Using Landsat Satellite Time Series. Case study: Southern Carpathians, Romania
Data processing model
Year
1984 1985 1986 1987 1994 2000 2002 2006 2007 2009 2011
Landsat TM
No
images
TM
4
TM
4
TM
4
TM
4
ETM ETM TM
4
4
4
TM
4
Sentinel-2 for Science Workshop | 20-22 May 2014 | ESA ESRIN | Frascati (Rome) Italy
TM
4
TM
4
4
Assessment of Forest Disturbance Using Landsat Satellite Time Series. Case study: Southern Carpathians, Romania
Results
Sentinel-2 for Science Workshop | 20-22 May 2014 | ESA ESRIN | Frascati (Rome) Italy
Assessment of Forest Disturbance Using Landsat Satellite Time Series. Case study: Southern Carpathians, Romania
Results
100.00%
90.00%
88.70%
80.00%
70.00%
60.00%
Persistance
50.00%
Disturbance
Gain
40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
7.19%
10.00%
4.11%
0.00%
Persistance
Disturbance
Gain
Sentinel-2 for Science Workshop | 20-22 May 2014 | ESA ESRIN | Frascati (Rome) Italy
Assessment of Forest Disturbance Using Landsat Satellite Time Series. Case study: Southern Carpathians, Romania
Conclusions
• Successful identification of forest disturbances across 29 years
of Landsat Images Archive for Southern Carpathians
• No spatial pattern detected
• Forest losses occurs especially after 1994
• Times gaps because of clouds cover brings uncertainty in the
final results
• The time gaps can be filled up by Sentinel-2
• Cloud screening
Sentinel-2 for Science Workshop | 20-22 May 2014 | ESA ESRIN | Frascati (Rome) Italy