Abstract

The NASA Landsat Pathfinder Humid Tropical Deforestation Project is funded through a collaborative effort between the University of Maryland at College Park's Geography Department, The University of New Hampshire's Complex Systems Research Group and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's GIMMS Group. The goal of this work is to map global deforestation for the humid tropics. Data sets from both the TM (Thematic Mapper) and MSS (Multispectral Scanner System) of Landsat are being used for three time periods in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.

The project is focusing on the three regions where most of the tropical deforestation in the world has occurred - the Amazon Basin, Central Africa, and Southeast Asia. Mapping deforestation in these three regions will account for the majority of deforestation activities in closed tropical forests worldwide. As currently configured, the Pathfinder will not compile an inventory of the entire tropics. Some parts of South Asia, West Africa, Madagascar, and Central America will not be covered. About 75% of the tropical rain forest areas are included in the Pathfinder data plan. The University of Maryland has responsibility for the non-Brazilian Amazon Basin (also known as the Pan-Amazon) and central Africa. The University of New Hampshire has responsibility for the Brazilian Amazon Basin and Southeast Asia.