Remote Sens. 2010, 2(2), 478-496; doi:10.3390/rs2020478
Article

Assessing Plant Diversity in a Dry Tropical Forest: Comparing the Utility of Landsat and Ikonos Satellite Images

Harini Nagendra 1,2,* email, Duccio Rocchini 3 email, Rucha Ghate 4 email, Bhawna Sharma 1 email and Sajid Pareeth 1 email
1 Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), Royal Enclave, Srirampura, Jakkur Post, Bangalore 560064, Karnataka, India 2 Center for the Study of Institutions, Population, and Environmental Change (CIPEC), Indiana University, 408 N. Indiana Ave., Bloomington, IN 47408, USA 3 IASMA Research and Innovation Centre, Fondazione Edmund Mach, Environment and Natural Resources Area, Via E. Mach 1, 38010 S. Michele all'Adige, TN, Italy 4 SHODH: The Institute for Research and Development, 50, Puranik Layout, Bharat Nagar, Nagpur 440033, Maharashtra, India
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 15 December 2009; in revised form: 8 January 2010 / Accepted: 28 January 2010 / Published: 2 February 2010
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecological Status and Change by Remote Sensing)
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Abstract: While high expectations have been raised about the utility of high resolution satellite imagery for biodiversity assessment, there has been almost no empirical assessment of its use, particularly in the biodiverse tropics which represent a very challenging environment for such assessment challenge. This research evaluates the use of high spatial resolution (IKONOS) and medium spatial resolution (Landsat ETM+) satellite imagery for assessing vegetation diversity in a dry tropical forest in central India. Contrary to expectations, across multiple measures of plant distribution and diversity, the resolution of IKONOS data is too fine for the purpose of plant diversity assessment and Landsat imagery performs better.
Keywords: biodiversity assessment; dry tropical forest; India; spatial resolution

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MDPI and ACS Style

Nagendra, H.; Rocchini, D.; Ghate, R.; Sharma, B.; Pareeth, S. Assessing Plant Diversity in a Dry Tropical Forest: Comparing the Utility of Landsat and Ikonos Satellite Images. Remote Sens. 2010, 2, 478-496.

AMA Style

Nagendra H, Rocchini D, Ghate R, Sharma B, Pareeth S. Assessing Plant Diversity in a Dry Tropical Forest: Comparing the Utility of Landsat and Ikonos Satellite Images. Remote Sensing. 2010; 2(2):478-496.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Nagendra, Harini; Rocchini, Duccio; Ghate, Rucha; Sharma, Bhawna; Pareeth, Sajid. 2010. "Assessing Plant Diversity in a Dry Tropical Forest: Comparing the Utility of Landsat and Ikonos Satellite Images." Remote Sens. 2, no. 2: 478-496.

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