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In recent decades, there has been an increase in the development of strategies for water ecosystem mapping and monitoring. Overall, this is primarily due to legislative efforts to improve the quality of water bodies and oceans. Remote sensing has played a key role in the development of such approaches—from the use of drones for vegetation mapping to autonomous vessels for water quality monitoring. Within the specific context of vegetation characterization, the wide range of available observations—from satellite imagery to high-resolution drone aerial imagery—has enabled the development of monitoring and mapping strategies at multiple scales (e.g., micro- and mesoscales). This Special Issue, entitled “Novel Advances in Aquatic Vegetation Monitoring in Ocean, Lakes and Rivers”, collates recent advances in remote sensing-based methods applied to ocean, river, and lake vegetation characterization, including seaweed, kelp, submerged and emergent vegetation, and floating-leaf and free-floating plants. A total of six manuscripts have been compiled in this Special Issue, ranging from area mapping substrates in riverine environments to the identification of macroalgae in marine environments. The work presented leverages current state-of-the-art methods for aquatic vegetation monitoring and will spark further research within this field.

freshwater wetland --- Lake Baikal --- methodological comparison --- Selenga River Delta --- WorldView-2 --- aquatic vegetation --- concave–convex decision function --- remote sensing extraction --- GF-1 satellite --- Lake Ulansuhai --- China --- invasive plants --- Spartina alterniflora --- CAS S. alterniflora --- object-based image analysis --- Landsat OLI --- substrate --- aquatic vegetation --- bottom reflectance --- water-column correction --- river --- spectroscopy --- radiative transfer --- WorldView-3 --- macroalgae --- reflectance --- 1st derivative --- species discrimination --- unmanned aerial vehicle --- nuclear power station --- floating algae index (FAI) --- normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) --- remote sensing --- seaweed enhancing index (SEI) --- seaweed

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Dear Colleagues, The composition, structure and function of forest ecosystems are the key features characterizing their ecological properties, and can thus be crucially shaped and changed by various biotic and abiotic factors on multiple spatial scales. The magnitude and extent of these changes in recent decades calls for enhanced mitigation and adaption measures. Remote sensing data and methods are the main complementary sources of up-to-date synoptic and objective information of forest ecology. Due to the inherent 3D nature of forest ecosystems, the analysis of 3D sources of remote sensing data is considered to be most appropriate for recreating the forest’s compositional, structural and functional dynamics. In this Special Issue of Forests, we published a set of state-of-the-art scientific works including experimental studies, methodological developments and model validations, all dealing with the general topic of 3D remote sensing-assisted applications in forest ecology. We showed applications in forest ecology from a broad collection of method and sensor combinations, including fusion schemes. All in all, the studies and their focuses are as broad as a forest’s ecology or the field of remote sensing and, thus, reflect the very diverse usages and directions toward which future research and practice will be directed.

diameter at breast height (DBH) --- tree height --- random Hough transform --- point cloud --- terrestrial laser scanning --- codispersion coefficient --- codispersion map --- imputation --- kriging --- measurement error --- missing observations --- spatial noise --- stump diameter --- stump height --- harvester --- product recovery --- Norway spruce --- forest canopy height --- ZiYuan-3 stereo images --- SRTMGL1 --- digital photogrammetry --- Landsat 8 --- mountainous areas --- high-voltage power transmission lines --- habitat fragmentation --- landscape fragmentation --- normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) --- crowdsourced data --- Google Street View --- interrater agreement --- municipal forestry --- species identification --- street trees --- tree measurement --- urban ecology --- urban forestry --- maximum forest heights --- metabolic scale theory --- allometric scaling and resource limitation model --- forest fire --- google earth engine --- terrestrial laser scanner --- laser --- ground validation --- Lantana camara --- SPOT-6 --- RapidEye --- 3D --- DSM --- Fractional cover analysis --- GSV --- nu SVR --- uneven-aged mountainous --- polarimetery --- multi-spectral --- optimization --- 3D remote sensing --- composition --- forest ecology --- function --- structure