Spatial pattern of forest resources in a multifunctional landscape

Forests are usually assessed as a discrete land cover type. However, we hypothesise that the resources associated with forests show diverse spatial patterns, only partially matching current forest boundaries. Therefore tree vegetation parameters related to relevant forest resources at the landscape level were assessed for the Canton of Geneva in western Switzerland. LIDAR based digital terrain and surface models at the local scale (2.5m resolution) were used to derive the tree vegetation parameters at the landscape scale (hectare resolution). Resulting rasters of ‘tree vegetation cover’, ‘mean and standard deviation of tree vegetation height’ showed that areas mapped as forests contained only 53% of the tree vegetation detected from LIDAR. A substantial amount, especially richly structured and high stands, were found outside forests, located predominantly in suburban areas. LIDAR based assessment of tree vegetation parameters confirmed that forest resources show a higher diversity in spatial pattern than is implied by the classified forest area. LIDAR proved to be an efficient technique for large scale forest and landscape assessment and monitoring.