摘要：Forest is a major resource and play vital role in maintaining the ecological balance and environmental setup. Over utilization of forest resources has resulted in the depletion. The changes in forest cover are the matter of global concern due to its ability of promoting role in carbon cycle. This study reviewed the potential application of remote sensing worldwide for assessing and monitoring the changes in forest cover during the past decades, an increasing urgent task. However, advances in the spatial and spectral resolutions of sensors are available for ecologist which mainly feasible, to study the certain aspects of biological diversity through direct remote sensing. Global and regional scale of temporal remote sensed data is now available for monitoring the changes in forest cover over the last few decades viz. Landsat, MODIS, ASTER, AWiFS and SPOT. Monitoring the changes in forest cover at global and regional scale can contribute to reducing the uncertainties in estimates of emissions of green house gases from deforestation. Remote sensing coupled with GIS (Geographical Information System) as a potential tool, for monitoring the changes in land cover at regional as well as global scale in developing countries , mainly by identifying the conservation priorities in global hotspots, rate of deforestation and quantification of overall forest cover loss at finer scale.
