Detection of meter-scale land cover changes in the presence of highly variable terrain

Reliable and low-cost monitoring of land cover changes as small as a meter, over areal extents greater than 10 km² is one of the most difficult challenges in remote sensing, particularly for landscapes with substantial terrain relief. We summarize results of research that demonstrate that this challenging problem is tractable. This paper focuses on acquisition and processing of airborne digital multispectral image data, in the context of monitoring shrubland habitat preserves.