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Part of this work was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, innovation and University through the project AGL2016-76769-C2-1-R Influence of natural disturbance regimes and management on forests dynamics. structure and carbon balance (FORESTCHANGE).
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Pascual, CristinaAuthorRemote sensing or the Spanish forests in the 21st century: a review of advances, needs, and opportunities
Publicated to:Forest Systems. 28 (1): - 2019-01-01 28(1), DOI: 10.5424/fs/2019281-14221
Authors: Gomez, Cristina; Alejandro, Pablo; Hermosilla, Txomin; Montes, Fernando; Pascual, Cristina; Angel Ruiz, Luis; Alvarez-Taboada, Flor; Tanase, Mihai; Valbuena, Ruben;
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Abstract
Forest ecosystems provide a host of services and societal benefits, including carbon storage, habitat for fauna, recreation, and provision of wood or non-wood products. In a context of complex demands on forest resources, identifying priorities for biodiversity and carbon budgets require accurate tools with sufficient temporal frequency. Moreover, understanding long term forest dynamics is necessary for sustainable planning and management. Remote sensing (RS) is a powerful means for analysis, synthesis, and report, providing insights and contributing to inform decisions upon forest ecosystems. In this communication we review current applications of RS techniques in Spanish forests, examining possible trends, needs, and opportunities offered by RS in a forestry context. Currently, wall-to-wall optical and LiDAR data are extensively used for a wide range of applications-many times in combination-whilst radar or hyperspectral data are rarely used in the analysis of Spanish forests. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) carrying visible and infrared sensors are gaining ground in acquisition of data locally and at small scale, particularly for health assessments. Forest fire identification and characterization are prevalent applications at the landscape scale, whereas structural assessments are the most widespread analyses carried out at limited extents. Unparalleled opportunities are offered by the availability of diverse RS data like those provided by the European Copernicus programme and recent satellite LiDAR launches, processing capacity, and synergies with other ancillary sources to produce information of our forests. Overall, we live in times of unprecedented opportunities for monitoring forest ecosystems with a growing support from RS technologies.
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Quality index
Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel
The work has been published in the journal Forest Systems due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency Scopus (SJR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2019, it was in position , thus managing to position itself as a Q2 (Segundo Cuartil), in the category Forestry. Notably, the journal is positioned en el Cuartil Q3 for the agency WoS (JCR) in the category Forestry.
From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 1.11. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 14, 2024)
This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:
- Weighted Average of Normalized Impact by the Scopus agency: 2.87 (source consulted: FECYT Feb 2024)
- Field Citation Ratio (FCR) from Dimensions: 9.27 (source consulted: Dimensions Jul 2025)
Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-07-13, the following number of citations:
- WoS: 16
- Scopus: 47
Impact and social visibility
Leadership analysis of institutional authors
This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Canada; Finland; Oman; United Kingdom.