High-resolution satellite images for detecting vegetation damage caused by terrain vehicles in northern Norway

In northern parts of Norway, the growing use of 4-wheel terrain motorcycles (light ATVs) outside roads is starting to damage the landscape. In Troms County, the Norwegian army has several exercise areas where there has been extensive use of light, medium and heavy armoured military vehicles and ATVs for decades. We have investigated the damage caused by these vehicles within Mauken (40,8 km²), Blaatind (140,9 km²) and Setermoen (152,3 km²) exercise areas applying high-resolution optical satellite images. Field inspections were also done to verify the results obtained from the satellite images. All observed tracks were digitized and an influence zone around each track defined to be 100 meters wide was applied to define the areas influenced by the damage. It is observed that large parts of these areas are influenced. Even small tracks and minor damage on the vegetation caused by ATVs and similar small vehicles are easily detected in these satellite images applying simple image processing techniques. It is concluded that these types of high-resolution optical satellite images are well suited for surveying damage on the vegetation caused by terrain vehicles in northern Norway, even damage caused by small and single ATVs.