Change of Tree Types and Estimation of Tree Ages in a Research Forest from Two-decade Archive of Landsat Images

We used a series of Landsat images acquired from 1984 to 2001 to observe decadal changes of the research forest of Kangwon National University. Tree NDVI images of November in 1984, 1986 and 2001 were displayed in RGB color composite. This image enabled us to identify historical change of conifer types and their approximate ages. Conifers were classified into 'old conifer aged more than 25 years', 'young conifer aged 20-25 years' 'very young conifer aged less than 20 years', and recently deforested areas. The results coincide with in situ data very well. Archives of higher resolution images should be used to monitor the change of area for various tree types.