Vegetation mapping of Bioko Island (Equatorial Guinea) using Landsat 7 ETM +: particularization to Afromontane vegetation type

Abstract

Sustainable forest management requires appropriate mapping information. In this work we developeda mapping of the current vegetation of Bioko island (Equatorial Guinea) based on supervised classificationof a Landsat 7 ETM +, and a mapping of Afromontane forests, including data distribution, surfaceand forest types where Prunus africana occurs. We propose six new types of transitional vegetationbetween Guinean-Congolese forest and Afromontane forests and different secondary Afromontane formations. The vegetation map of Bioko had a Kappa coefficient of 0.69. Difficulties were encounteredin separating secondary lowland forest classes from transition zones between Guineo-Congolian and Afromontane forests. Accuracy was highly improved when a second classification was restricted to theisland’s Afromontane vegetation (>1400 m a.s.l.), yielding a Kappa coefficient of 0.81. Our results haveappropiate accuracy for forest management demonstrating that remote sensing is a useful source formapping development, especially in tropical areas with difficult access.