Forest cartography using Landsat imagery, for studying deforestation over three catchments from Apuseni mountains, Romania

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This paper is describing the development and application of a methodology that can be used to obtain spatial and statistical data which can allow the deforestation assessment, and not least it can provide the necessary support in assessing the deforestation influence upon runoff. Remote sensing and cartography, used to develop a method for obtaining spatial data regarding the land cover and especially regarding forest surfaces, allows better analysis of the processes involving forest removal, namely deforestation. The methodology is involving the usage of multitemporal-multispectral Landsat imagery and forestry data for an area represented by three catchments located in the Apuseni Mountains, Romania. By using the data sources, a unique spectral library has been constructed with unique land cover classes. This library was used for all considered project imagery. The obtained data was processed after that in a GIS environment in order to obtain the spatial distribution and numerical data that could highlight the deforestation process. The results were then used to indicate the magnitude of forest cover changes which occurred on almost 22% from one of the catchments area.