Monitoring of an Andean rainforest environment with remote sensing

While the Tropical Andes are considered as the hotspot of biodiversity, in terms of endemic species, Ecuador is subject to South Americas second highest deforestation rate. The need for retaliatory action calls for cost-effective monitoring of land use changes in extensive and often inaccessible areas. We present a change-detection method designed for the requirements of a tropical mountain rainforest ecosystem and investigate, how the spatial distribution of deforestation links to infrastructure.