Assessing forest canopy closure in a geospatial medium to address management concerns for tropical islands: Southeast Asia

Abstract

The present study outlines an approach to classify forest density and to estimate canopy closure of the forest of the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago. The vector layers generated for the study area using satellite data was validated with the field knowledge of the surveyed ground control points. The framework developed would serve as a significant measure to forest health and evaluate management concerns whilst addressing issues such as gap identification, conservation prioritisation and disaster management -- principally to the post-tsunami assessment and analysis.