Determining the Drying Out of Coniferous Trees Using Airborne and Satellite Data

Abstract

In recent \ndecades, the problem of drying out of conifers has become a subject of \nsignificant importance due to the widespread mortality of trees caused by stem \npest’s damage. Early detection of areas affected by insect outbreaks is of \ngreat relevance for preventing the further spread of pests. Forests of Belarus \nare largely affected by conifers dieback caused by the bark beetle. The aim of \nthe study was to identify drying out conifers using a TripleSat satellite \nmultispectral image of a woodland area in Belarus based on preliminary airborne \nmeasurements. Spectrometers operating in a spectral range of 400 - 900 nm were used in airborne measurements, resulting \nin distinguishing various drying out stages with an accuracy of 27% - 74% for aerial data. In \nthis study, a supervised classification of the TripleSat image based on the \nmethod of linear discriminant analysis (LDA) was performed. The input data for \nLDA algorithm is a set of remote sensing vegetation indices. Results of the \nstudy demonstrate that about 90% of the test site is at the green-attack stage \nthat is confirmed by ground surveys of this area.