Assessing Plant Diversity in a Dry Tropical Forest: Comparing the Utility of Landsat and Ikonos Satellite Images

Remote Sensing

Harini Nagendra²  Duccio Rocchini¹  Rucha Ghate³  Bhawna Sharma² 

[1] IASMA Research and Innovation Centre, Fondazione Edmund Mach, Environment and Natural Resources Area, Via E. Mach 1, 38010 S. Michele all'Adige, TN, Italy; E-Mail:;Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), Royal Enclave, Srirampura, Jakkur Post, Bangalore 560064, Karnataka, India; E-Mails:;SHODH: The Institute for Research and Development, 50, Puranik Layout, Bharat Nagar, Nagpur 440033, Maharashtra, India; E-Mail:

关键词: biodiversity assessment;    dry tropical forest;    India;    spatial resolution;   

DOI  :  10.3390/rs2020478

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

While high expectations have been raised about the utility of high resolution satellite imagery for biodiversity assessment, there has been almost no empirical assessment of its use, particularly in the biodiverse tropics which represent a very challenging environment for such assessment challenge. This research evaluates the use of high spatial resolution (IKONOS) and medium spatial resolution (Landsat ETM+) satellite imagery for assessing vegetation diversity in a dry tropical forest in central India. Contrary to expectations, across multiple measures of plant distribution and diversity, the resolution of IKONOS data is too fine for the purpose of plant diversity assessment and Landsat imagery performs better.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2010 by the authors; licensee Molecular Diversity Preservation International, Basel, Switzerland.