The monitoring and evaluation of environmental management practices such as restoration, conservation and reforestation is a major part of sustainable planning. Unfortunately, the quantification of large areas of green space over time can be both time-consuming and complex. Here simple GIS and remote sensing methods of land cover classification and NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) can be used to obtain a practical overview of temporal and areal changes for further ecological research and decision-making. - The project on which this technical instruction is based, was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany under funding number 01LE1804B1.