Discussion Questions (Week 7b)

Sader SA, Hayes DJ, Hepinstall JA, et al. 2001. Forest change monitoring of a remote biosphere reserve. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF REMOTE SENSING 22 (10): 1937-1950.

1. Which Landsat TM bands are used in the NDVI, and is using this index in the Classification and Change Detection a good idea in this case?

2. The authors decided that Radiometric Correction was not necessary in this procedure. Why?
   
   
3. The Classification was performed separately on two 3-date NDVI data sets when 5 total dates were being examined. Why was this done?
   
   
4. How was the actual Change Detection carried out in this study?
   
   
5. In the Accuracy Assessment the date range from 1986-1990 was omitted because this time span was before the creation of the Maya Biosphere Reserve. Is this a good reason to omit this part of the data from the Accuracy Assessment?
   
   
6. What were the reasons for using 221 UTM defined cells in this project?

Guild et al. 2004. Detection of deforestation and land conversion in Rondonia, Brazil using change detection techniques. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF REMOTE SENSING 25 (4): 731-750.

1. What were the main reasons why the authors decided to do this study?

2. What were some of the problems associated with other similar studies of the same area?

3. What are the characteristics that distinguish old-growth/primary forest from regrowth areas and cleared areas?

4. What caused most of the classification inaccuracy?

5. Out of the three methods, what did the authors consider to be the best one, and why?