Remote assessment of shelterbelt conditions after military actions

Authors

  • Sergey Stankevich Scientific Centre for Aerospace Research of the Earth of the Institute of Geological Sciences of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Olesia Honchara str., 55-b, Kyiv, 01054, Ukraine https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0889-5764
  • Anna Kozlova Scientific Centre for Aerospace Research of the Earth of the Institute of Geological Sciences of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Olesia Honchara str., 55-b, Kyiv, 01054, Ukraine https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5336-237X
  • Artem Andreiev Scientific Centre for Aerospace Research of the Earth of the Institute of Geological Sciences of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Olesia Honchara str., 55-b, Kyiv, 01054, Ukraine https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6485-449X
  • Stanislav Golubov Scientific Centre for Aerospace Research of the Earth of the Institute of Geological Sciences of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Olesia Honchara str., 55-b, Kyiv, 01054, Ukraine https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3711-598X
  • Artur Lysenko Scientific Centre for Aerospace Research of the Earth of the Institute of Geological Sciences of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Olesia Honchara str., 55-b, Kyiv, 01054, Ukraine https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2923-8648

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.36023/ujrs.2025.12.2.281

Keywords:

shelterbelts, post-war restoration, damage assessment, remote sensing, Sentinel-2, EVI, NDMI, S2REP

Abstract

Shelterbelts are an essential element for sustainable land use, providing ecological functions such as soil erosion prevention, maintaining water balance, mitigating the effects of dry winds and dust storms, and supporting biodiversity. However, the war in Ukraine caused significant damage, or even destruction, to the shelterbelts. Since ground-based surveys are dangerous due to military actions and cannot effectively assess large territories, remote sensing is the only viable option. Thus, the aim of this study is the remote assessment of shelterbelt conditions after military actions. The given approach should provide information about shelterbelt conditions, including their damage level, which can be used for post-war restoration. In this paper, the shelterbelt conditions assessment is performed based on the three spectral indices evaluated upon the Sentinel-2 satellite's data, namely biomass (EVI), chlorophyll content (S2REP) and moisture content (NDMI). Additionally, a fused map of shelterbelt conditions is created using these indices. The condition of shelterbelts located between the village Klynove (Bakhmut rayon) and Vuhledar's thermal power plant was remotely assessed in our experiment. From May to August 2022, this territory was in the zone of active military actions. Concerning the fused map of shelterbelt conditions, 96.61% of the study area has taken damage, as stated by at least one indicator. Most of these damages correspond to low or medium damage levels, and NDMI gave the highest percentage of high damage level (15.99%). Using high-resolution imagery from Google Earth, visual validation of the obtained maps confirmed the correspondence between the identified damage and its actual state. This indicates the reliability of the obtained maps. Since most damage levels are low or medium, these shelterbelts can be considered for post-war restoration. Further research may include satellite radar data, which will enable the retrieval of continuous time-series data despite the weather conditions, and classification methods for shelterbelt detection and mapping for the developed approach scaling.

Author Contributions: Conceptualization – S.A. Stankevich and A.O. Kozlova; methodology – S.A. Stankevich and A.A. Andreiev; formal analysis – A.O. Kozlova and A.A. Andreiev; investigation – A.A. Andreiev, S.I. Golubov, and A.R. Lysenko; data curation – A.A. Andreiev, S.I. Golubov, and A.R. Lysenko; writing – original draft preparation – A.A. Andreiev, S.I. Golubov and A.R. Lysenko; writing – review and editing – S.I. Golubov and A.R. Lysenko; visualization – S.I. Golubov and A.R. Lysenko. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding: This research funded by Grant of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine to research laboratories/groups of young scientists of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine for conducting research in priority areas of science and technology (2025-2026) for the project "Development of a geoinformation toolbox for remote assessment of shelterbelts damaged by military actions".

Data Availability Statement: Data available on reasonable request from the authors.
Acknowledgments: The authors are grateful to the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine for supporting this research. We are also grateful to the reviewers and editors for their valuable comments, recommendations, and attention to the work.

Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest

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Published

2025-06-30

How to Cite

Stankevich, S., Kozlova, A., Andreiev, A., Golubov, S., & Lysenko, A. (2025). Remote assessment of shelterbelt conditions after military actions. Ukrainian Journal of Remote Sensing, 12(2), 4–9. https://doi.org/10.36023/ujrs.2025.12.2.281

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 2 (2025)

Section

Techniques for Earth observation data acquisition, processing and interpretation

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