Remote Sensing Applications for Monitoring Terrestrial Protected Areas: Progress in the Last Decade

Lijun Mao, Mingshi Li and Wenjuan Shen
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Lijun Mao: College of Forestry, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China
Mingshi Li: College of Forestry, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China
Wenjuan Shen: College of Forestry, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 12, 1-27

Abstract: Terrestrial protected areas (PAs) play an essential role in maintaining biodiversity and ecological processes worldwide, and the monitoring of PAs is a useful tool in assessing the effectiveness of PA management. Advanced remote sensing technologies have been increasingly used for mapping and monitoring the dynamics of PAs. We review the advances in remote sensing-based approaches for monitoring terrestrial PAs in the last decade and identify four types of studies in this field: land use & land cover and vegetation community classification, vegetation structure quantification, natural disturbance monitoring, and land use & land cover and vegetation dynamic analysis. We systematically discuss the satellite data and methods used for monitoring PAs for the four research objectives. Moreover, we summarize the approaches used in the different types of studies. The following suggestions are provided for future studies: (1) development of remote sensing frameworks for local PA monitoring worldwide; (2) comprehensive utilization of multisource remote sensing data; (3) improving methods to investigate the details of PA dynamics; (4) discovering the driving forces and providing measures for PA management. Overall, the integration of remote sensing data and advanced processing methods can support PA management and decision-making procedures.

Keywords: terrestrial protected area; remote sensing monitoring; management decisions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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