Remote sensing of american maple in alluvial forests: a case study in an island complex of the Loire valley (France)

Abstract

Due to their particular topographic position between land and river, riparian forests are ecosystems rich in biodiversity. In France, along the Middle Loire (from Nevers to Angers), Black poplar (Populus nigra L.) forests are often in mixtures with the American maple (Acer negundo L.), introduced into the country in the 18th century. We tested the detectability of American maple by LiDAR and very high-resolution multispectral imagery on an island complex. We found that coupling the point cloud height standard deviation with a vegetation index in the red, green and blue spectrums discriminated American maple with a success rate of more than 90%.

Keywords

• acer negundo
• american maple
• box elder
• populus nigra
• black poplar
• airborne laser scanning
• remote sensing
• exogenous woody species
• loire river