By Javier Chico
Summary:
Habitat mapping has been done comprehensively conform European Habitat directives and creates Natura 2000 ecological networks. However, habitat conservation requires information beyond the protected areas. Remote sensing can provide better species and habitats distributions. In this thesis, satellite images are used to map a Mediterranean habitat in two regions. Cork-oak forests are detected in two ways: spatially with a classification of Landsat images and temporally with Vegetation Indices profiles from MODIS images. In addition the influence is explored of using different ancillary datasets to sample and assess habitat distributions.