EODC – Service for Continuous Monitoring of Alpine Forests by Means of Sentinel-2 / Landsat 8 –Data

The aim of this project is to develop a concept for an Alpine Forest monitoring system implemented in the EODC (Austrian Earth Observation Data Centre). It is based on Copernicus Sentinel-2 data in conjunction with Landsat-8 data, which in this combination form an ideal basis for the establishment of a large-scale monitoring system due to their high spectral, spatial and temporal resolution. The prototypes implemented in AlpMon provide users with two different services: Service 1: a near real-time alert system for abrupt forest changes based on time series analyses (storm damage, insect disasters, clear-cutting and snow breakage); Service 2: a recording of static forest parameters (e.g. every 3 to 5 years).

Project consortium: EODC, Joanneum Research, Catalaysts/Cloudflight Austria.

The AlpMon project builds on the existing Copernicus Forest High Resolution Layer but extends it with a greater differentiation of tree species and a more precise recording of the alpine forest boundary. Novel methods for data pre-processing, time series analysis and classification will be integrated into the EODC. A prototype for a user-friendly web service will be created to enable users to retrieve the results of the near real-time system as quickly as possible. The design of the overall system is based on the needs of the users. At the end of the project, the system is tested in a proof-of-concept phase in collaboration with the users, and potential weaknesses are identified and improved in several feedback loops.