HR: 0800h
AN: H31E-1344    [Abstracts]
TI: Airborne Laser Scanner Mapping as a Monitoring Method for Forest Ecosystem Dynamics of Mts. Shirakami, Northeastern Japan, World Heritage Site
AU: * YAGI, H
EM: yagi@e.yamagata-u.ac.jp
AF: Lab.Geomorphology, Yamagata univ., 1-4-12 Kojirakawa, Yamagata, 990-8560 Japan
AU: SAITO, M
EM: msaitoh@morioka-u.ac.jp
AF: Morioka Univ., 808 Sunagome, Takizawa Village, 020-0183 Japan
AU: SATO, H
EM: hsato@gsi.go.jp
AF: Geographical Survey Institute, 1 Kitago, Tsukuba, 305-0811 Japan
AU: NAKASHIZUKA, T
EM: toron@chikyu.ac.jp
AF: Research Institute for humanity and Nature, Kamigyouku, Kyoto, 602-0878 Japan
AU: MIMURA, K
EM: KIICHI_MIMURA@env.go.jp
AF: Tohoku Regional Office of Nature Conservation, Minstry of Environment, Japan, 3-2-23 Honcho, Aobaku, Sendai, 980-0014 Japan
AU: MORI, K
EM: KAZUHIRO_MORI@env.go.jp
AF: Tohoku Regional Office of Nature Conservation, Minstry of Environment, Japan, 3-2-23 Honcho, Aobaku, Sendai, 980-0014 Japan
AU: OTSUBO, M
EM: MIYOSHI_OTSUBO@env.go.jp
AF: Tohoku Regional Office of Nature Conservation, Minstry of Environment, Japan, 3-2-23 Honcho, Aobaku, Sendai, 980-0014 Japan
AU: SUHAMA, T
EM: tomoyuki_suhama@pasco.co.jp
AF: PASCO Corporation, 1-1-2 Higashiayma, Meguroku, Tokyo, 153-0043 Japan
AU: MITANI, A
EM: ayumu_mitani@pasco.co.jp
AF: PASCO Corporation, 1-1-2 Higashiayma, Meguroku, Tokyo, 153-0043 Japan
AB: Shiramakami Mts. situated in the mountains of northeastern Japan is registered as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, because the area includes the last remaining virgin stand of Siebold's beech (Fagus crenata)forest, the typical Japanese climax temperate forest. The registered area consists of 10,139ha core zone plus 6800 ha buffer zone and covers about one third of the Shirakami mountains which are a heavily dissected range with summits rising to just over 1200 m. In the Shirakami-sanchi World Heritage site, it is important to develop suitable monitoring method for conservation and management. UNESCO requires to report site condition and how we investigate. For this purpose various investigations have been conducted to clarify the nature of forest by collecting basic field data on climate, topography and biology. But it is not fully carried out to grasp the forest ecosystem in the whole area because of inaccessibility to the site with steep topography and long winter. Since the primeval beech forest ecosystem is prerequisite factors for registration of Mts. Shirakami as World Heritage, it is primarily important to monitor the change in structure and composition of the beech forests in the area. In this sense, the forest 3D structure (tree height, canopy density, canopy regeneration) and its dynamics are useful information to investigate. However, it requires large amount of labors to know in a large area for long-term. Thus, we need to develop an effective monitoring method, which can observe the forest ecosystem in an efficient way. This research project has been taken with two objectives (i) to clarify the forest ecosystem dynamics for conserving forest ecosystem, (ii) to develop a monitoring method in large scale of forest ecosystem by using airborne sensor systems. In FY2003 and 2004, the measurements by airborne laser scanner and hyper-spectral sensor were done around Mt. Kushiisi south slope monitoring site. Also, ground observations on structure and composition of the forest (tree height, diameter of tree crown, tree species, and topographical feature) were obtained at 3 test sites for verification of air survey data. Airborne laser scanning was carried out both in early Summer and late Autumn in order to get DSM and DTM. Then we could achieve height of the forest, subtracting DTM from DSM. The 3D density of a laser scanner pulse of the summer expressed the qualitative features of forest 3D structure of each monitoring well, though several detailed evaluations are still required for quantitative features.
DE: 1851 Plant ecology (0476)
DE: 1855 Remote sensing (1640)
DE: 1890 Wetlands (0497)
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005