A link between multispectral remote sensing, image processing and ecological analysis of landscape elements

For the purpose of combining the concepts of multispectral remote sensing, image processing and landscape ecology overflights over an area near the city of Nurnberg (FRG) have been made. To account for the small scales under consideration in landscape ecology (extensions of ecotopes and ecotones of minimal a few 10 cm) the Daedalus AADS 1268 airborne scanner has been used providing high spatial resolution (70 cm at flight hight 300 m) and 11 spectral channels. In addition, high resolution aerial photographs and data of ecological evaluations of the experimental area are available. By edge detection on the vegetation index image several ecotones (of different stands of wood) could be separated. The fractal dimensions of two edges of an oak stand are computed. The fractal dimension of a man made wood edge is lower than the fractal dimension of an edge of the same stand but resulting obviously from storm damage, making the latter more valuable in a landscape-ecological sense