Towards an operational use of VHF SAR data for forest mapping and forest management

Forest stand parameters at high spatial resolution are needed for long and short term planning of forestry operations. Investigations in recent years, relating data from the Swedish airborne CARABAS-II VHF SAR sensor to forest stand parameters, have shown very promising results, which have motivated additional studies. Several flight campaigns over public and privately owned forested areas in Sweden have been conducted during 1999 and 2000. The objectives for these new projects are to validate results from earlier investigations, to study tree species, soil moisture, and ground slope induced backscattering variations, and to develop methods for detection of changes caused by logging activities and other rapid changes. The overall goals for these projects are to study the operational use of VHF SAR data to derive forest parameters and to develop a cost-effective remote sensing tool for mapping of forest characteristics at high spatial resolution and with high accuracy.