Determining successional stage of temperate coniferous forests with Landsat satellite data

Thematic Mapper (TM) digital imagery was used to map forest successional stages and to evaluate spectral differences between old-growth and mature forests in the central Cascade Range of Oregon. Relative sun incidence values were incorporated into the successional stage classification to compensate for topographic induced variation. Relative sun incidence improved the classification accuracy of young successional stages, but did not improve the classification accuracy of older, closed canopy forest classes or overall accuracy. TM bands 1, 2, and 4; the normalized difference vegetation index; and TM 4/3, 4/5, and 4/7 band ratio values for o|d-growth forests were found to be significantly lower than the values of mature forests. The Tasseled Cap features of brightness, greenness, and wetness also had significantly lower old-growth values as compared to mature forest values .