Human or natural? Landscape context improves the attribution of forest disturbances mapped from Landsat in Central Europe

Deforestation can happen naturally, through infestation of native beetles and extreme weather. However, people can intentionally clear forests for timber and other industries. Difference between the two can be difficult to diagnose.



Remote sensing satellites provide the opportunity to distinguish between natural and human caused changes. Using Landsat data, German and Austrian researchers analyzed the Central Europe landscape from 1986–2016. They sifted through 2620 observations of disturbance into wind, bark beetles, & timber harvesting.



The results showed increasing disturbances from wind & beetles since 1986. Over the course of 30 years, wind impacts increased by 408% and bark beetle impact increased by 99%. The novel approach to understanding disturbances is an important step toward forest management across the world. Read the research here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0034425721002200?via….