Remote Sensing and GIS tools for Forest Resource Management-A Review

Global importance and thus need to quantify the status of forest dynamics is increasing day by day. It is more so in the case of a country like India which is on the deficit side of forest cover in countering ecological balance. Information required for forest resource management includes extant, type of forest, felling/cutting, deforestation, afforestation, forest fire, forest flood, and extraction of bio-physical parameters like age of plantation, total biomass, canopy density etc. Widespread, vast span and difficult terrain, and inaccessibility makes it difficult to collect timely and periodic information about above mentioned parameter through conventional means. Forest mapping is one of the fields that witnessed the earliest application of remote sensing and GIS for nonmilitary purposes. using remote sensing data and GIS techniques, a forest manager can generate information regarding forest cover, types of forest present within an area of interest, human encroachment extent into forest land/protected areas, encroachment of desert-like conditions and so on [3].For the purpose of understanding the working of remote sensing and GIS, the basics are explained below