Forests 2014, 5, 1304-1330; doi:10.3390/f5061304 OPEN ACCESS forests ISSN 1999-4907 www.mdpi.com/journal/forests Article Evaluation and Comparison of QuickBird and ADS40-SH52 Multispectral Imagery for Mapping Iberian Wild Pear Trees (Pyrus bourgaeana, Decne) in a Mediterranean Mixed Forest Salvador Arenas-Castro 1,*, Juan Fernández-Haeger 2 and Diego Jordano-Barbudo 2 1 Department of Land Use and Improvement, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamýcká 129, 165 21 Prague 6 (Suchdol), Czech Republic 2 Department of Botany, Ecology and Plant Physiology (Area of Ecology), Faculty of Sciences, University of Cordoba, Cordoba 14071, Spain; E-Mails:
[email protected] (J.F.-H.);
[email protected] (D.J.-B.) * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail:
[email protected]; Tel.: +420-22-438-2144; Fax: +420-23-438-1848. Received: 9 January 2014; in revised form: 15 April 2014 / Accepted: 29 May 2014 / Published: 11 June 2014 Abstract: The availability of images with very high spatial and spectral resolution from airborne sensors or those aboard satellites is opening new possibilities for the analysis of fine-scale vegetation, such as the identification and classification of individual tree species. To evaluate the potential of these images, a study was carried out to compare the spatial, spectral and temporal resolution between QuickBird and ADS40-SH52 imagery, in order to discriminate and identify, within the mixed Mediterranean forest, individuals of the Iberian wild pear (Pyrus bourgaeana). This is a typical species of the Mediterranean forest, but its biology and ecology are still poorly known.