Perspectives on remote sensing monitoring applied to forest inventory and land cover mapping for management purposes in Santa Catarina (Brazil)

Remote sensing (RS) is an adequate analysis tool when complemented by field work, providing new information for carbon accounting and the management of diverse species, covering a research topic which has a significant interest nowadays in the climatic change context. Dynamic models and forest inventory data improve the ability to estimate forest parameters and temporal changes, thus providing valuable information for the establishment of more adequate management practices. The analysis of RS images coupled to the Santa Catarina Forest and Floristic Inventory (IFFSC) sound products is intended to enable standardization of methods, assessment of accuracy, development and calibration of models, practical application and extrapolation to large areas, stand attributes mapping and estimation, considering diversity of scales, species and uses. The IFFSC confirmed a preoccupying biodiversity loss (e.g., scarcely 32% of the tree/shrub species identified from the pool recorded in prior inventories) and noticeable forest cover fragmentation compromising populations viability. The final target is to contribute to territorial management in the near future at a regional level, obtaining a detailed knowledge of forestry uses of RS techniques and improving experimental design in biogeography studies. This paper sketches the objectives and methodological design.