The implementation of the Forest Canopy Density (FCD) model for Coniferous ecosystems in Cyprus forests, using Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 satellite data.

The canopy of trees plays a very important role in forest ecosystems and acts as a regulator, as it is a factor that affects the microclimate and the soil conditions. The density of the forest canopy is associated with forest development, and it is a factor that can indicate the degree of forest degradation. Additionally, forest density is one of the most important parameters, used in the design and implementation of programs for forest restoration, especially in cases of areas affected by fires. The main objective of this study is to determine the disturbance that occurred in the canopy density after the fire events that occurred in Argaka and Solea villages in June 2016 at Paphos forest and Adelfoi forest respectively, in Cyprus. For the purposes of this study, the Forest Canopy Density model (FCD model) was estimated using the Landsat-8 satellite data. Moreover, this study aimed to evaluate the FCD using Sentinel-2 data. The results obtained from Sentinel-2 seem to be very promising and the calculation of the canopy density through this study is achieved in a better resolution, in contrast to the analysis available by the Landsat-8 satellite. This work has been supported by the project ‘ERATOSTHENES: Excellence Research Centre for Earth Surveillance and Space-Based Monitoring of the Environment-EXCELSIOR’ (https://excelsior2020.eu/) that has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 857510 (Call: WIDESPREAD-01-2018-2019 Teaming) and from the  Government of the  Republic of  Cyprus through the Directorate-General for the  European  Programmes,  Coordination, and  Development.