Analysis of forest change based on remote sensing in the San Marcelino protected area, Republic of El Salvador, Central America

Abstract

This study analyzes forest change in the San Marcelino Protected Area, located in El Salvador, Central America. The area includes traces of the former San Marcelino volcano eruption and is currently part of El Salvador's Natural Protected Areas System.
According to the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MARN), the Complex covers approximately 1,612 hectares (EDICIONBIOMA, 2021). The objective is to analyze the environmental-forest change in the protected area, presenting an exploratory study, approached from remote sensing, using Sentinel-2 images, analyzing the behavior of bands and construction of vegetation indices.
This study is focused on the analysis of forest change in the last 5 years (from 2018 to 2022); in these five years, the change and growth of vegetation are delt with based on vegetation indices specifically the normalized difference NDVI vegetation index; the vegetation index is presented through images of photosynthetic activity, which are compared through graphs for periods of one month and contrasted with the graph of index behavior in relation to its quantitative values.