High Spatial and Spectral Resolution Remote Sensing of Panama Canal Zone Watershed Forests

High spatial resolution airborne and satellite sensors have been used with varying degrees of success to measure deciduousness, canopy structure, and light interception, and to identify tree species in the Panama Canal Watershed. Results reported to date indicate that remotely sensed data have a high degree of accuracy in measuring deciduousness and leaf density in the upper canopy, but less accuracy than in temperate systems in measuring canopy light interception for semi-deciduous lowland tropical forests in the canal watershed. Of particular relevance to evergreen forests like the upper Río Chagres basin, this work examines whether high spectral resolution data, like that collected by the HYDICE system, can separate canopy species based on hyperspectral signatures in the 0.4 to 2.5-µm wavelength region. If a few well-selected spectral bands could accurately differentiate species, tropical canopies in remote and rugged terrain could be mapped using relatively simple, but optimized sensor systems.