Classical and Modern Remote Mapping Methods for Vegetation Cover

Abstract

Plant classification is quite complex and multilevel. All living organisms are divided into domains, kingdoms, types, classes, ranks, families, tribes, and species. This classification complexity is also reflected in the classification of biogeographic maps, which is much simpler. Based on floristic dependence, vegetation is grouped by connecting it into spatial (territorial) complexes. This paper presents the interfaces of mapping methods with taxonomic vegetation types at different hierarchical levels. At the same time, examples of vegetation mapping techniques from national and thematic atlases of different countries are presented in this article. UAV aerial photographs are widely used for local mapping of vegetation areas. The authors of this article propose a new methodology that can be used to assess the ecological condition of young trees and the volume of mature forest wood. The methodology is based on the separation of tree crown areas in UAV aerial photographs and photo color analysis. For automated area calculation of young trees, a PixRGB software has been developed to determine the area of pixels of the same color in aerial photographs. The software is based on the comparison of young tree crown area calculations in AutoCAD software and area measurements of individual color spectrum pixels. In the initial stage, aerial photographs are transformed to the exact size of the photographed area. Transformations were performed with an error of less than 2–3 cm. The transformation of the spectrum of aerial photographs allowed to concentrate the color of the image of young trees in a relatively narrow color range. Studies performed in 2019–2020 to assess the ecological condition of trees and the amount of wood using UAV INSPIRE 1 and PixRGB color analysis software showed the effectiveness of the applied methodology.