It is an objective of the GeoResources Institute to develop basic and applied research, in conjunction with educational/outreach activities, to develop and enhance uses of remote sensing in forestry and wildlife habitat management.

Thrust Areas:

• Forest inventory (assessment/enumeration/change of forest resources at stand, local, regional, and national scales);
• Wildlife habitat and population management (distribution of natural and managed habitat for predictive modeling of wildlife distributions and population dynamics);
• Forest productivity (forest growth and yield under different management/environmental influences);
• Forest damage (identify and quantify damage due to insects, disease, storms, fire, or other events);
• Vegetation management (distribution and impacts of competing vegetation in managed timber stands).

Airborne LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) systems, digital frame cameras, and space-based satellite sensors are examples of imaging technologies evaluated in GRI programs for forest inventory utility. In addition, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) aid in determination of the economic feasibility of their use compared to labor-intensive traditional means, and for integrating their data analyses into an automated aerial stand inventory and monitoring system.