Application of remote sensing data for monitoring of forest vegetation on the territory of Nature Park "Blue Stones", Bulgaria

The aim of the study is to give assessment of and monitor the vegetation's condition of the forest areas in which territories the predominantly forest species of the plantations is Eastern Mysian beech (Fagus orientalis), by combinative approach of Remote Sensing's methods and generation of different vegetation indices (NDVI, NDGI). SAR and optical data of the Sentinel when the phenophase of the forest vegetation is the most active, from April to July, respectively, for the years of the selected period were chosen. Tasseled Cap Orthogonal Transformation is applied to the selected images, resulting in three components - TCT component of the "brightness", TCT component of the "wetness" and the TCT component of the "greenness". In the present research, the TCT component of the "greenness" was used, which is giving more accurate and precise data on the current state of the forest vegetation. A comparative analysis of the processed data obtained from the applied different methods and vegetation indices has been made, in order to select the higher quality and more precise results with purpose the analysis and assessment of the state of forest vegetation on the territory of the Natural Park.