Assessment of the relationships between morphometric characteristics of relief with quantitative and qualitative characteristics of forests using ASTER and SRTM digital terrain models

• Main Author: D. M. Chernikhovsky
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Russian Academy of Sciences, Siberian Branch Publishing House 2017-06-01
• Series: Сибирский лесной журнал
• Subjects: morphometric characteristics of relief; forest mensuration; State forest inventory; geographic information technology; digital terrain models
• Online Access: http://xn--80abmehbaibgnewcmzjeef0c.xn--p1ai/upload/iblock/966/9666e9530db764094ac8ed73512ca743.pdf

In the article are shown results of assessment of relationships between quantitative and qualitative characteristics of forests and morphometric characteristics of relief on an example model plot in Nanayskoe forest district of Khabarovsk Territory. The relevance of the investigation is connected with need for improvement of the system of forest evaluation operations in the Russian Federation, including with use of the landscape approach. The tasks of the investigation were assessment of relationships between characteristics of relief and characteristics of forest vegetation cover on different levels of forest management; evaluation of morphometric characteristics of relief are important for structure and productivity of forests; comparison of the results obtained through the use of digital terrain models ASTER and SRTM. Geoinformatic projects were formed for a model plot on the basis of digital terrain models and data of forest mensuration and State (National) Forest Inventory. On the basis of the developed method with use geoinformatic technologies were estimated morphometric characteristics of relief (average height, standard deviation of height, entropy, exposition and gradient of slopes, indexes of ruggedness and roughness), quantitative and qualitative characteristics of forests. The multifactor regression analysis, where characteristics of forests (as dependent variables) and morphometric characteristics of relief (as independent variables) were used, have been done. As a result of research, the set of morphometric characteristics of relief able to influence to variability of quantitative and qualitative characteristics of forests was identified. The set of linear regression equations able to explain 30–50 % of variability of dependent variables was obtained. The regression equations, obtained on base of digital terrain models ASTER and SRTM, comparable to each other in strength of relations (coefficients of determination), but includes the different sets of morphometric characteristics. The results of the study suggest the presence of relationships between characteristics of forests and morphometric characteristics of relief on different levels of forest management.