Open AccessThe use of NDVI and CORINE Land Cover databases for forest management in Serbia
Author(s) -
Mladjan Jovanovic,
Miško Milanović,
Matija Zorn
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
acta geographica slovenica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.473
H-Index - 20
eISSN - 1581-8314
pISSN - 1581-6613
DOI - 10.3986/ags.818
Subject(s) - normalized difference vegetation index , geography , land cover , forest cover , index (typography) , forest management , vegetation (pathology) , land use , database , forestry , remote sensing , environmental resource management , physical geography , environmental science , ecology , climate change , medicine , pathology , world wide web , computer science , biology
A normalized difference vegetation index provides local forest managers with much essential annual information about the forest inventory. This article evaluates the possible use of NDVI and CORINE Land Cover databases for better forest management in the municipalities of Kursumlija and Topola in Serbia. The forest areas obtained using CLC were up to 11.5% larger than the official forest area estimates, whereas NDVI gave more precise results. This is of a crucial importance for preventing illegal logging, which is very prevalent in southern Serbian municipalities, which have substantial forested territory. NDVI is very promising for Serbia and also for countries that rarely carry out national forest inventories. This method can also easily be applied to other Balkan countries with a similar situation regarding local forest management.