INVESTIGATION OF FOREST CANOPY DENSITY CHANGES IN HYRCANIAN FOREST RESOURCES DURING 1987 TO 2002 USING REMOTE SENSING TECHNOLOGY

Abstract. Forest canopy density (FCD) of seventeen protected areas of the Caspian Hyrcanian mixed forest are studied here. A modified version of FCD mapper based on spectral band fusion and customized threshold calibration that is optimized for Hyrcanian forests is used for this purpose. In this project, the results of applying the FCD model on three time series of satellite images have been analysed. This classification is based on the FAO standard and consist of four categories such as no-forest, thin, semi-dense and dense. These images, taken with TM and ETM sensors, belong to three-time series between 1987 and 2002. The results of this study indicate that the rate of growth or destruction of forests has been investigated in the regions. Then, using tables and diagrams of variations, the rate of growth or destruction of forest lands in the corresponding period in each class is determined. The FCD model has the ability to study the canopy loading classes in the annual time series.