Remote sensing solutions to model vegetation structure and scale up ecological and socio-economic functions in a changing landscape

Forest conversion into other land uses (e.g. production forests, arable lands) is strongly affecting both ecological services and the livelihoods of native populations, particularly in the tropics. Measuring and monitoring vegetation structure can provide timely insights into the health of different ecosystems and in turn can provide useful information to landholders and management agencies to implement adaptive management and conservation strategies.

Within the Central Scientific Service Project Z02 (Working Project 2 – Remote Sensing), my focus is to provide remote sensing data products for scaling up ecological and socio-economic functions from plot to landscape and regional level. This is done along a land use gradient (old growth secondary rainforest, jungle rubber, rubber and oil palm plantations) in the Jambi province, Sumatra (Indonesia). Structural measurements derived from airborne LiDAR (~30 points/m2) and hyperspectral images (30 cm pixel size) will be firstly calculated on a number of ground control plots (~100) and then scaled up to macro plots. Subsequently, these metrics will be related to spaceborne sensors, to provide information at the province and regional level.