抄録
Photographs taken from a balloon were utilized in the description of a vegetation map of mangrove forests in Chantabri and Phang-nga, Thailand.
The use of satellite data has presented an entirely new development for observing vegetation and landscape patterns in ecological studies. However, while the satellite technique is suitable for research on large-scale ecological systems, it does not provide the detailed information needed for projects such as vegetation mapping surveys.
For obtaining detailed vegetation maps of certain mangrove forests, a balloon-mounted aerial photographic system was produced. The balloon system is a simple mechanism which offers ease of operation as well as economical production costs. It is thus especially useful for field survey applications in South-east Asia.
The functional characteristics of the system are as follows.
1) It is easy to discriminate mangrove species by observing the difference in color of the forest crowns in the aerial photographs taken from the balloon.
2) Detailed vegetation maps can be efficiently drawn up by combining aerial photographs and ground surveys.
3) The vegetation map was described using an image-analyzing computer. Although the number of sphere extractions was reduced to half in comparison with visual classification methods, this analyzing method is adequate for describing the main canopy composition of the forest.
