Dl. Sachs et al., DETECTING LANDSCAPE CHANGES IN THE INTERIOR OF BRITISH-COLUMBIA FROM 1975 TO 1992 USING SATELLITE IMAGERY, Canadian journal of forest research, 28(1), 1998, pp. 23-36
To consider the regional scale effects of forest management requires c
omplete and consistent data over large areas. We used Landsat Thematic
Mapper and Multispectral Scanner (TM and MSS) imagery to map forest c
over and detect major disturbances between 1975 and 1992 for a 4.2 x 1
0(6) ha area of interior British Columbia. Forested pixels were mapped
into closed conifer, semiopen conifer, deciduous, and mixed forest cl
asses, with further subdivision of the closed conifer type into three
age-classes. The image-based estimate of harvested area was similar to
an independent estimate from forest inventory data. Changes in landsc
ape pattern from 1975 to 1992 were examined by calculating indices tha
t describe overall landscape pattern and that of conifer and harvested
patches in each biogeoclimatic zone. Harvesting affected 8.4% of the
forest area outside provincial parks during the 17-year period. Harves
ted areas were consistently much smaller than conifer patches in all b
iogeoclimatic zones and had a lower percentage of interior area and pe
rimeter/area ratio. Conifer patch-shape complexity varied between zone
s; harvested patches had simpler shapes and were similar in all zones.
Results indicate that this landscape is only in the early stages of f
ragmentation, but a similar harvest pattern has been imposed on differ
ing ecological zones.