Materials and Methods
The Landsat Thematic Mapper (Landsat-TM) data was taken as an input
for the FCD (Forest Canopy Density) model. The FCD model comprises biophysical
phenomenon modeling and analysis utilizing data derived from four
indices: Advanced Vegetation Index (AVI), Bare Soil Index (BI), Shadow Index
or Scaled Shadow Index (SI, SSI) and Thermal Index (TI).
It determines FCD
by modeling operation and obtaining from these indices. Landsat-TM (PathRow
146-039) of 14-09-1996 and Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+) data
(Path-Row 146-039) of 14-10-2002 has been used for the digital analysis of
forest canopy density.
Phenology of the vegetation is one of the important
factors to be considered for effective stratification of the forest density. Optimum
season for the assessment of forest canopy density in the present study is August
– November months of the year. Pre-processing is done in Erdas Imagine to
enhance spectral signature of digital data and then enhanced image is imported
into BIL format to make it compatible with FCD mapper