Experiences with the implementation of GIS and remote sensing in the Czech forest management

Currently in all former "socialist countries" a technological revolution is going on: information technology development and the implementation of new digital sources of data utilisation. In all European countries forestry is a major part of this market. But especially in the above mentioned countries which are in transition, a renovation of the forest management is necessary, under the scope of the new laws about private forest property. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have been discovered as new and fast tools for modern forest management. The Czech forestry, faced with typical central European environmental problems due to air pollution and forest diseases, became a leader in remote sensing and GIS technological applications in the Czech Republic. The history of "GIS forestry" is relatively long, beginning in 1988. The current situation of GIS implementation in Czech forestry, the traditional and new data sources, and future perspectives in the context of the state administration are illustrated in this paper. Emphases will be put on modelling, monitoring and forecasting of forest diseases using a technology based on the Landsat (TM) image classification and detailed-data GIS data base generation.