Remote Sensing of Vegetation Biophysical and Biochemical Attributes as Indicators of Ecosystem Condition and Processes

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Vegetation and water are critical resources that are being impacted by environmental change such as land use intensification, pollution and climate change. As a consequence, environmental land management requires improved understanding of vegetation and water dynamics for management of forests, wetlands, and protected/sensitive areas. An important aspect of this is a need for detailed spatio-temporal information on these resources. My long-term research goal is: Develop new knowledge on the spatial distribution and temporal dynamics of vegetation and water for use in environmental land management. I work in forest, wetland and tundra environments, integrating field and remote sensing studies at local to regional scales. Building on a research foundation (1983- present) in high to moderate resolution remote sensing for vegetation composition, structure, health and habitat mapping, new research is proposed in these three environments. The forest research will develop an index of forest complexity that can be used as an indicator of habitat resources. It will include forest structure parameters derived from high resolution satellite imagery and LiDAR data along with forest composition derived from image classification. The modeling results will be analyzed over time to map changes that are occurring in relation to known disturbance mechanisms such as inundation and insect infestation. In wetlands research, capability for assessment of surface water dynamics and flood attenuation, vegetation diversity, anthropogenic impact and rare wetland and vegetation groups will be developed using multiple scale optical and Radarsat-2 imagery. In arctic research, vegetation biochemistry (specifically chlorophyll content) and structure will be estimated and mapped using hyperspectral satellite and Radarsat-2 imagery. The research will produce significant contributions at the forefront of the vegetation and remote sensing sciences as well as practical environmental knowledge and methods. These will be of direct use to the collaborating organizations (Environment Canada, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and the National Capital Commission) and more broadly in environmental land management across Canada and internationally.