Ecological Status and Change by Remote Sensing

Evaluating ecological patterns and processes is crucial for the conservation of ecosystems [1]. In this view, remote sensing is a powerful tool for monitoring their status and change. This involves several tasks like biodiversity estimate, landscape ecology, and species distribution modeling, to name a few [2]. Due to the difficulties associated with field-based data collection [3], the use of remote sensing for estimating ecological status and change is promising since it provides a synoptic view of an area with a high temporal resolution [4]. Of course in some cases remote sensing should be viewed as a help to plan a field survey rather than a replacement of it. Further, its improper use may lead to pitfalls and misleading results.

This special issue “Ecological Status and Change by Remote Sensing” is devoted to provide an almost complete overview of robust methods applied to ecological status and change estimate by remote sensing. The contributions published in this special issue cover most of the ecological fields of research involving remote sensing, in particular: (i) mapping vegetation, species distribution modeling and land use status and change; (ii) estimating environmental processes; (iii) developing landscape ecology metrics; (iv) assessing community biodiversity; and (v) estimating climatic parameters.

The authors submitting their manuscript to this special issue of Remote Sensing are amongst the most prominent authors, editors and referees of a number of leading journals in the remote sensing field.

I am proud to act as Guest Editor and I am really grateful to the reviewers who helped me and the Remote Sensing Editorial Office to guarantee a robust scientific background of all the published papers.

I hope that this special issue will stimulate further discussion on the real potential of remote sensing in estimating ecological status and change.