A completely clear image of Bilsa and the surrounding forested areas was not available. The best image available still had about a 72% cloud coverage for the entire Northwestern region of Ecuador. However, on Google Earth there is an image that is completely cloud free; either done through averaging the zero values with the surrounding values and masking the clouds or creating a composite of different days. Even when compared to the Global Forest Watch, (http://www.globalforestwatch.org/) their image had bad lines running across. They also used the Google Earth image as a reference to calculate their deforestation process. This could lead in skewed and inaccurate data results.
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| Global Forest Watch. Northwestern Ecuador Landsat Image 2012 |
The cloud cover made it difficult to create a make a time series of the deforestation that has occurred over the past years in this territory. However, the NDVI and density slice results show minimal amounts of secondary and old growth forest in the region. In addition, there is a correlation between cloud cover and forest density. The hydrological cycle in this area is affected by deforestation; less tree cover leads to an irregularity in the cycle, resulting in clearer images with less cloud cover. Therefore, we would rather see images of this region covered in clouds.
More studies still need to be conducted to save this biodiversity hotspot. Our research can provide the baseline estimates for conservationists. Our research shows that reserves are important to the conservation of tropical forest, as most of the healthier vegetation was found within and near the reserves. We hope that our study can lead to the establishment of new contiguous reserves that can save the last remaining portion of this tropical rainforest and all its biodiversity.
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