Remote Sensing for Sustainable Coastal Forests

Coastal forests are complex ecosystems that are highly dynamic and vulnerable to the impacts by humans and climate change. Development pressures, climate change, and sea-level rise have accelerated land-use change, leading to a disproportionate loss of coastal forest ecosystems through degradation and conversion. To better understand, predict, and facilitate evidence-based management, it is essential to map, monitor, and model the distribution and state of coastal forests. Remote sensing technologies offer a powerful set of tools for monitoring and assessing coastal forest ecosystems. These technologies can collect data from satellites, aircraft, and drones to provide accurate information on coastal forest dynamics. This information can be used to develop sustainable management practices that promote the long-term conservation and resilience of coastal forests.

The escalating effects of climate change on coastal forests necessitate a deeper comprehension of the associated risks, monitoring techniques, and sustainable management practices. Consequently, this special issue invites contributions that highlight the application of remote sensing data with novel methods in promoting the development of coastal forest mapping, monitoring, and condition assessment to improve the adaptive management of coastal forests under the impacts of climate change.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Remote sensing for coastal forests and vegetated wetlands mapping
- Remote sensing for monitoring coastal forest ecosystem health under climate change
- Remote sensing for ecological restoration assessment of coastal forests
- Remote sensing for biodiversity protection in coastal forests and vegetated wetland ecosystems
- Remote sensing for key parameters estimation of coastal forests (e.g., biomass, GPP, etc.)
- Remote sensing for disturbances detection in coastal forest ecosystems
- Remote sensing to detect invasive species
- Remote sensing and AI methods for coastal forests and vegetated wetland ecosystems
- Climate change adaptation strategies in coastal forests from the perspective of remote sensing
- Sustainable management decision-making in coastal forests supported by spatial information

Keywords: Coastal forests, Remote sensing, Climate change, Adaptation strategies, Human influence, Sustainable management

Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.