Physiognomic map of natural vegetation
Cartographie physionomique de la végétation naturelle
Résumé
This chapter describes the method that is based on works developed in the framework of a national project financed by the Ministry of the Environment, Energy and the Sea. The physiognomic map of natural vegetation provides a clear and homogeneous spatial framework to the field operators, even before deploying field teams. Natural vegetation is much more spectrally stable over time than crop vegetation. A time series throughout the vegetative period is used to discriminate between natural vegetation. The classification of vegetation densities, that is to say the level of opening of the media (herbaceous, open woody, dense woody), is based on texture data from the very high spatial resolution (VHSR) image. The treatments in the vegetation mapping method use the basic functionalities of the quantum geographic information system (QGIS) software as well as the integrated image processing library Orfeo Toolbox (OTB), developed by CNES.