FOREST COVER TYPE MAPPING AND DAMAGE ASSESSMENT OF ZEIRAPHIRA-DINIANA BY SPOT-1 HRV DATA IN THE MERCANTOUR NATIONAL-PARK

Research actions carried out by the Mercantour National Park include natural environment inventories and management actions. Their aim is to reconcile protection of the environment, rehabilitation of abandoned agricultural land and the actual development potential of these low-value but high-potential areas. Among the available tools, a computerized geographical information system for the whole park seemed most useful and a survey is currently being carried out. Indeed, the geographical information sensing including remote-sensing data as a favoured variable is the answer to many of the problems of resource managers (storage, and retrieval of inventories, impact studies, assessment of time series). Work has been carried out combining SPOT imagery with a geographical information system covering the Mercantour National Park. Results are given in the following three areas; adaptation and usefulness of the two data sources; land-use mapping using SPOT data (by supervised classification); and monitoring of phytosanitary phenomena. © 1990 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.