ARSF Project GB06/05; led by Dr. Tim Malthus (School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh), Clocaenog Forest (North Wales), Glasfyndd Forest (South Wales)

This research project aimed at investigating the applications of remote sensing in Continuous Cover Forest management in collaboration with the Forestry Commission. Continuous Cover Forestry (CCF) is a more sustainable form of forest management that avoids the need for clear cutting and allows the utilisation of natural regeneration rather than re-planting to re-stock forest stands. This type of forest management greatly increases inventory and monitoring requirements both in terms of the amount of information required and the frequency with which inventories must be repeated. High spatial resolution remote sensing has the capability to meet some of these requirements by providing information on forest structure at a within-stand level and may therefore allow a more adaptive management approach to be taken. Specifically, remotely sensed data may allow indices to be derived to describe both vertical and horizontal heterogeneity of forest structure and the prediction of understorey light conditions, an important factor in the success of natural regeneration. These aspects in particular were the objectives of this research.