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Research article2012Peer reviewed

Histogram matching for the calibration of kNN stem volume estimates

Gilichinsky, Michael; Wallerman, Jörgen; Egberth, Mikael; Nilsson, Mats

Abstract

In this study, we have tested HM for the calibration of kNN total stem volume raster maps to the reference distribution captured by a forest inventory (FI) from 106 stands in Stromsjoliden, in the north of Sweden. The available field FI data set comprises 1084 circular plots, divided into a reference data set and an evaluation data set of total stem volume observations. The reference data set was used for the creation of a cumulative frequency histogram of total stem volume and the evaluation data set was used to assess the accuracy of volume estimates, before and after HM. The HM adjusted the cumulative distribution of the kNN data set to the distribution of the reference observations and resulted in a distribution of kNN estimates of total stem volume, which corresponded closely to that of the evaluation data set. The results show that the variation range of the kNN stem volume estimates can be extended by HM both on the pixel and stand levels. The extension of the range of estimates towards the range provided by the field observations allows improvement of kNN volume estimation for use in forest management planning based on stand-level analysis, given that the reference stem volume distribution can be estimated accurately, for example, using field data from NFI.

Published in

International Journal of Remote Sensing
2012, Volume: 33, number: 22, pages: 7117-7131
Publisher: TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD