Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 15, 2026
Integrating Remote Sensing with Species Distribution Models; Mapping Tamarisk Invasions Using the Software for Assisted Habitat Modeling (SAHM)
Published on: October 11, 2016
Baseline assessment for environmental services payments from satellite imagery: a case study from Costa Rica and
M Kalacska1, G A Sanchez-Azofeifa, B Rivard
1Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Department, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alta., Canada T6G 2E3.
Abstract:
In this study we evaluate the accuracy of four global and regional forest cover assessments (MODIS, IGBP, GLC2000, PROARCA) as tools for baseline estimation. We conduct this research at the national scale for Costa Rica and for two tropical dry forest study sites in Costa Rica (Santa Rosa) and Mexico (Chamela-Cuixmala). We found that at the national level, the total forest cover accuracy of the four land cover maps was inflated due to an overestimation of forest in areas with an evergreen canopy. However, the four maps greatly underestimated the extent of the deciduous forest (dry forest); an ecosystem that faces high deforestation pressure and poses complications to the mapping of its extent from remotely sensed data. For the tropical dry forest sites, all maps have low forest cover accuracies (mean for Santa Rosa: 27%; mean for Chamela-Cuixmala: 56%). This has implications for policy implementation.
