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Research article2004Peer reviewed

Estimation of forest stem volume in sloping terrain using CARABAS-II VHFSAR data

Fransson JES, Smith G, Walter F, Gustavsson A, Ulander LMH

Abstract

In this paper a heuristic method is presented for reducing topography effects on forest stem volume estimation at stand level using a combination of low-frequency CARABAS-II very high frequency (VHF) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images acquired from several flight directions. The method has been tested on stand-wise backscatter averages and on segment (derived from digital elevation models) backscatter averages aggregated to stand level. The investigation was performed at two test sites in Sweden characterized by coniferous forests on sloping terrain (ground slope <22degrees). At the two test sites, Tonnersjoheden and Brattaker, objectively inventoried stand-wise stem volumes were in the range of 80690 m(3.)ha(-1) (average 324 m(3)(.)ha(-1)) and 80-320 m(3.)ha(-1) (average 182 m(3.)ha(-1)), respectively. At Tonnersjoheden the results show that the accuracy, in terms of root mean square error (RMSE), obtained from linear regression analysis was in the range of 70-105 m(3.)ha(-1) using single-image data from four flight directions compared with the segment approach resulting in an RMSE of 67 m(3.)ha(-1) using the images in combination. The corresponding results at Brattaker were 45-58 m(3.)ha(-1) and 42 m(3.)ha(-1) based on images acquired from four flight directions. In both cases, the RMSE obtained is about 22% of the average stem volume. The applied methodology significantly improved stand-wise stem volume estimation in sloping terrain compared with that using single-image data

Published in

Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing
2004, Volume: 30, number: 4, pages: 651-660 Publisher: CANADIAN AERONAUTICS SPACE INST

    UKÄ Subject classification

    Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use
    Forest Science

    Publication identifier

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.5589/m04-026

    Permanent link to this page (URI)

    https://res.slu.se/id/publ/3436