Overview

With over 30 percent of the Earth's total land area covered in forests, assessing and monitoring forest resources is no small feat. Satellite imagery has proven to be an efficient method for forest resource management as it provides synoptic coverage of forested areas and parameters.

Several applications in forestry have benefited from RADARSAT-1 data - in particular clear-cut mapping. RADARSAT-2's array of beam modes and polarimetric capabilities is likely to provide significant steps forward in the detection of structural differences between forests, and offer greater potential for burn mapping. High-resolution data from RADARSAT-2 offers the potential to improve forest-type mapping using textural analysis.