Abstract
The Japanese forestry industry has been significantly affected by increases in low-price timber imports and by a diminishing work force. This has had a direct impact on the level of maintenance of the coniferous forests. Poorly maintained coniferous forests lose their ability to produce timber and their resistance to natural disasters. To inform on new management systems man-made forests are classified into 4 types, “Sound”, “Lightly blighted”, “Medium blighted” and “Heavily blighted”. This classification is based on the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and the data is on-site investigation. Satellite data of Landsat5/TM, Landsat7/ETM+ and ASTER/VNIR was used to establish the classification in Inami in Wakayama Prefecture. The results, with 66% accuracy indicate that sound manmade forest accounts for 62% of all man-made forest in Inami.
