Estimation of liana infestation above canopy in state park Gunung Stong, Kelantan using unmanned aerial vehicle

• Main Author: Mohamad Zamri, Sofiah
• Format: Undergraduate Final Project Report
• Published: 2020
• Online Access: http://discol.umk.edu.my/id/eprint/4228/
• Institution: Universiti Malaysia Kelantan

The study area of lianas was executed in Gunung Stong located in the district of Dabong, Kelantan. This study was conducted to determine the estimation of liana infestations and Crown Occupancy Index by using UAV. A drone was flown around the study site to obtain the image of the area. Altogether 99 images captured by drone was then stitched using Dronedeploy. A yellow line was drawn on the image which indicate liana-infested tree crown area and red line shows liana leaves area. ImageJ software was used to measure the area of both tree crown area and liana leaves area. Based on the result, the highest liana percentage cover obtained was 43.3% and the lowest was 7.4%. Spearman's rank test was used to calculate the correlation between crown occupancy index and liana cover percentage. Rs value was 0.6875 which appears to be a moderate positive correlation between Crowon Occupancy Index and Liana Cover %. In future, a researcher will need to expand the time frame of study using UAV to asses further conditions of liana infestations in the forest above canopy Gunung Stong. Lianas infestation occured due to the presence of treefall gap at Gunung Stong.