Investigating different sensors for degradation mapping in Cameroonian tropical forests

Existing methods to detect forest degradation are tested and applied on different data sets in the south-eastern part of Cameroon. In addition to optical sensors such as Landsat, Aster and AVNIR, the potential of PALSAR and TerraSAR-X data for generating forest maps as a first step towards forest degradation mapping is assessed. The results show, that AVNIR is best suitable to detect degradation with SMA based on its high geometric resolution. The investigation on PALSAR and TerraSAR-X data is currently in an early stage with forest/nonforest distinction analysis showing a compliance of 81.8% between the PALSAR forest mask and a visually interpreted forest mask based on AVNIR data.