Evaluation of Persian Oak Forests Dieback Using Spot 6 (Case Study- Kohmareh District in Fars province)

Iranian oak has been affected by oak canopy level dieback in recent years. This phenomenon has led to damage a vast part of the oak forests in the Zagros arena. As to the suitable temporal and spacial resolution of the recent satellite images, it seems promising to detect the forest dieback by remote sensing. The spatial capabilities of Spot6 images with pan and spectral resolution of 1.5 and 6 m, respectively in detecting the drying of oak trees was investigated. The forest area was located on ​​Kuhmareh district of Shiraz in Fars province. The values of different indices such NDVI, EVI, TDVI, SAVI, RNDVI, OSAVI, DVI, MSR of each tree stocks was obtained and the corresponding quantity of dryness was determined at the filed. The best correlation was obtained between TDVI and the observed data. A non-linear function was built based on TDVI standard deviation to predict the dryness of more than 30% as y=17.92(x-0.06)-0.32 with an R2 = 82%. Monitoring forest areas to understand the decline or recovery of trees will be of great help to the forest management community. Therefore, using the results of this study can be a proof to compare the current situation with future periods.