AERIAL AND SATELLITE SENSOR DETECTION OF KALMIA-ANGUSTIFOLIA AT FOREST REGENERATION SITES IN CENTRAL NEWFOUNDLAND

The regeneration of black spruce (Picea mariana (Mill.) B.S.P.) in cen tral Newfoundland following disturbance by fire or logging can be impe ded by the ericaceous shrub Kalmia augustifolia L. This study was init iated to use multi-spectral aerial (Compact Airborne Spectrographic Im ager) and satellite (Landsat Thematic Mapper) remote sensing to detect the presence of kalmia on disturbed sites. Two separate classificatio n schemes were designed to include kalmia and other major cover types such as black spruce, alder, non-kalmia cutovers and wetlands. Discrim ination of training samples revealed that kalmia could be detected and mapped with an accuracy of 96 per cent using the aerial data. Over la rger areas, kalmia was discriminated-in wetlands, cutovers and burns-w ith 85 per cent accuracy using the satellite sensor imagery.