[CANUFNET] Canopy Cover

[Andy Kenney]

Hello CANUFNET,

 

I agree with Peter that the first step towards managing canopy cover is to
do some inventory work. There are many ways to go about this, and our
experience of late developing a canopy cover estimate for the City of
Thunder Bay might be of interest to all those concerned with urban canopy
cover inventory work.

 

1 - Imagery type and resolution: from satellite imagery to aerial
photography there are plenty of options. 

 

We found current year high res (i.e 50-80 c pixels) colour digital aerial
imagery acquired at a time of year when deciduous trees have leaves the best
for delineating the extent of individual tree canopies. Coupled with high
res imagery Cities typically have on hand collected "leaf off" to view grey
infrastructure to interpret any problem areas we were confident that urban
canopy cover exists where our interpreters looked to classify points.  

 

2- Continuous versus point sample approaches to classification of ground
cover types. 

 

Continuous classification requires very high resolution images and lots of
$$. Does it provide better information remains a question. The key to
providing good estimates using point sampling is to have access to good GIS
data in order to provide stratification options that others in this chat
have alluded to - i.e. residential vs. commercial and industrial land use
types; Wards; Neighborhoods, etc.  Once strata of interest are selected, one
can measure precision of the estimates statistically and ensure estimates
fall within acceptable margins of error.

 

KBM can provide support for any of these approaches. We led all of the study
design, and flew our own aircraft and digital camera set-up for Thunder Bay;
and did all image processing and interpretation in house. I don't know of
any other Ontario forestry consulting service providers that have/can do
this. Most similar Ontario projects to date have relied heavily on support
from the US forest Service.

 

I invite anyone interested to contact me directly using the coordinates
listed in my e-signature below. Also, Thunder Bay City Forester Shelley
Vescio is open to discussing the Thunder Bay project. In fact, she and City
Planner Chris Doyle will be presenting the project methodologies and
outcomes at an upcoming ESRI user conference in Thunder Bay April 28-29
2009:

 



 


ESRI Regional User Conference - Thunder Bay 

Date : Apr 28, 09 ~ Apr 29, 09 
Venue : Valhalla Inn
Venue Address : 1 Valhalla Inn Road, Thunder Bay, ON P7E 6J1
Venue Telephone: 807-577-1121
Location : Thunder Bay, ON
Event Language : English


ESRI Regional User Conference - Thunder Bay
ESRI Canada is pleased to invite you to join other GIS professionals for
this exclusive opportunity to learn about the latest advances in GIS
technology and hear first hand how others in your community are using a
geographic approach in their work.

The main conference (plenary sessions, user presentations and technical
sessions) will be held on Wednesday, April 29, 2009.

Enhance your conference experience with a pre-conference workshop. Workshops
will be held on Tuesday, April 28, 2009.

 

 

 

Ben Kuttner, M.Sc.F., R.P.F.

Consulting Forester

General Manager - Toronto

KBM Forestry Consultants Inc.

 <http://www.kbm.on.ca/> www.kbm.on.ca

 <mailto:kuttner at kbm.on.ca> kuttner at kbm.on.ca

mobile: 647-273-4576

 

 

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