Patent ID: 8194916

Claim:
A system for identifying a forest stand in an area of interest that is growing at a rate that is faster or slower than predicted, comprising: a computer that is configured to execute a series of program instructions that cause the computer to: store a current and a previous image of the area of interest in a memory, wherein the current and previous images include near infrared and red visible light pixel data; divide the pixels in the current and previous image into groups associated with forest stands; determine a vegetative index (VI) value for the group of pixels associated with the forest stands in the current and previous images; compute a relationship between the VI values determined from the previous and current images; compare a VI value determined for a group of pixels associated with a forest stand in the current image with a predicted VI value for the same group of pixels as determined from the relationship to determine a difference value; and use the difference value to produce an indication that a forest stand associated with a group of pixels is growing faster or slower than predicted.