Tim Richards
Space Applications Institute (SAI), Joint Research Centre, TP 641, 21020 Ispra (Va), Italy, tel: (+39) 0332789102, e-mail tim.richards@jrc.it

Abstract

The Global Vegetation Monitoring Unit of the EC Joint Research Centre's Space Applications Institute undertakes research into using remote sensing and geographical information systems technologies for mapping and monitoring the tropical belt's vegetation resources and dynamics. The work of the unit is subdivided into a number of groups aligned on a project basis. These include the TREES project (Development of a monitoring system for tropical resources) and the FIRE project (Vegetation biomass burning worldwide). The TREES and FIRE projects make use of the full range of GIS functionality for data management, visualisation, analysis and map production in the fields of tropical forest mapping and biomass burning.
The unit has an extensive spatial-oriented database of environmental data layers for the Tropics. This consists of both vector and raster data sets at a variety of scales, as well as a very large collection of satellite imagery from a range of satellites. The data sets are catalogued using a metadata database which stores forty-five descriptive items per data set. This metadata database is used as the core a data visualisation system which relieves the user of the need to know where datasets are stored and what symbologies should be applied to them. The system also incorporates non-spatial data, such as news reports, text documents, photographs and web addresses to form the Tropical Forest Information System (TFIS) containing many diverse data types and formats integrated in a single system.
The GIS is used to support the European Commission's policies in tropical forest conservation and management, to which it is a major donor.