Human activities during the last decades provoked a notable reduction in global forest cover. Knowing that forest stands act as stock and sinks for carbon and other greenhouse gases, it is important to determine the existing forest cover at country level and to calculate annual deforestation rates. This work uses NOAA satellite images in a resolution of 1 km x 1 km to classify the surface of continental Ecuador in “forest” – “non-forest” pixels and to estimate the annual deforestation rate from 1986 to 2001 as well as from 2001 to 2008. The method is based on a decision tree algorithm that includes different spectral bands of the NOAA-AVHRR sensor and additional topographic and meteorological parameters. The results show that the total forest cover of continental Ecuador was reduced from 48.1 % in 1986 to 36.8 % in 2008. The calculated annual deforestation rates indicate that forest reduction increased during the last decade. The most affected area is the Coastal Lowland, due to the enhanced population pressure, followed by the Amazon Basin, not only caused by the governmental supported oil and mining industry, but also due to the uncontrolled timber extraction. The Andean Highland has been less affected, because the major parts of this region were deforested before, during the Pre-Columbian-Era.

中文翻译：

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使用 NOAA-AVHRR 卫星数据评估厄瓜多尔过去几十年的森林砍伐

过去几十年的人类活动导致全球森林覆盖率显着下降。知道林分是碳和其他温室气体的存量和汇，确定国家层面的现有森林覆盖率并计算年度森林砍伐率非常重要。这项工作使用分辨率为 1 公里 x 1 公里的 NOAA 卫星图像将厄瓜多尔大陆表面分类为“森林”-“非森林”像素，并估计 1986 年至 2001 年以及 2001 年至 2001 年的年度森林砍伐率。 2008. 该方法基于决策树算法，该算法包括 NOAA-AVHRR 传感器的不同光谱带以及附加的地形和气象参数。结果表明，厄瓜多尔大陆的森林总覆盖率从 1986 年的 48.1% 下降到 2008 年的 36.8%。计算出的年度森林砍伐率表明，在过去十年中森林减少量有所增加。受影响最严重的地区是沿海低地，由于人口压力增加，其次是亚马逊盆地，不仅是由于政府支持的石油和采矿业，还因为不受控制的木材开采。安第斯高地受到的影响较小，因为该地区的大部分地区在前哥伦布时代之前都曾被砍伐过。