Large scale vegetation mapping in mountain environments using remote sensing and plant physiology methods

Vegetation mapping in mountains using remote sensing methods poses several problems. First of all, digital classification in mountain environments needs to take into account haze, molecular multiscattering and illumination effects due to orographic conditions. Further on, enormous variation of mountain environments leading to high dispersion and patchiness of vegetation communities, zonal (as opposed to linear) character of communities borders, make the research more troublesome than in lowland regions. This paper presents a combination of remote sensing and plant physiology methods for vegetation communities recognition. The research is based on large scale, multispectral photos made from ground level (photos of the opposite slope) and laboratory chlorophyll analysis (using photospectrometer). The second part of the research deals with biomass analysis. Biomass measured at several points in the field has been correlated with biomass assessed on the base of NDVI, derived from ground photos and spectrometer measurements.