Remote sensing has been extensively applied in agriculture for its objectiveness and promptness. However, few applications are available for monitoring natural medicinal plants. In the paper, a multilevel monitoring system, which includes satellite and aerial remote sensing, as well as ground investigation, was initially proposed to monitor naturalRheum tanguticumresource in Baihe Pasture, Zoige County, Sichuan Province. The amount ofR. tanguticumfrom images isM=S*ρandSis vegetation coverage obtained by satellite imaging, whereasρisR. tanguticumdensity obtained by low-altitude imaging. Only theR. tanguticumwhich coverages exceeded 1 m2could be recognized from the remote sensing image because of the 0.1 m resolution of the remote sensing image (called effective resource at that moment), and the results of ground investigation represented the amounts ofR. tanguticumresource in all sizes (called the future resource). The data in paper showed that the present available amount ofR. tanguticumaccounted for 4% to 5% of the total quantity. The quantity information and the population structure ofR. tanguticumin the Baihe Pasture were initially confirmed by this system. It is feasible to monitor the quantitative distribution for natural medicinal plants with scattered distribution.
Natural Resource Monitoring ofRheum tanguticumby Multilevel Remote Sensing
