A sample design for globally consistent biomass estimation using lidar data from the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS)

Carbon Balance and Management

Elizabeth A Freeman⁴  Andrew J Lister¹  Michael A Lefsky³  Sassan Saatchi²  Paul L Patterson⁴  Sean P Healey⁴ 

[1] US Forest Service, Northern Research Station, Newtown Square, PA, 19073, USA;NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, USA;Colorado State University, Colorado, CO, USA;US Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fort Collins, CO, 80526, USA

关键词: Lidar;    Remote sensing;    Forest monitoring;    Biomass;   

Others  :  797860
DOI  :  10.1186/1750-0680-7-10

 received in 2012-04-27, accepted in 2012-09-03,  发布年份 2012

【 摘 要 】

Background

Lidar height data collected by the Geosciences Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) from 2002 to 2008 has the potential to form the basis of a globally consistent sample-based inventory of forest biomass. GLAS lidar return data were collected globally in spatially discrete full waveform “shots,” which have been shown to be strongly correlated with aboveground forest biomass. Relationships observed at spatially coincident field plots may be used to model biomass at all GLAS shots, and well-established methods of model-based inference may then be used to estimate biomass and variance for specific spatial domains. However, the spatial pattern of GLAS acquisition is neither random across the surface of the earth nor is it identifiable with any particular systematic design. Undefined sample properties therefore hinder the use of GLAS in global forest sampling.

Results

We propose a method of identifying a subset of the GLAS data which can justifiably be treated as a simple random sample in model-based biomass estimation. The relatively uniform spatial distribution and locally arbitrary positioning of the resulting sample is similar to the design used by the US national forest inventory (NFI). We demonstrated model-based estimation using a sample of GLAS data in the US state of California, where our estimate of biomass (211 Mg/hectare) was within the 1.4% standard error of the design-based estimate supplied by the US NFI. The standard error of the GLAS-based estimate was significantly higher than the NFI estimate, although the cost of the GLAS estimate (excluding costs for the satellite itself) was almost nothing, compared to at least US$ 10.5 million for the NFI estimate.

Conclusions

Global application of model-based estimation using GLAS, while demanding significant consolidation of training data, would improve inter-comparability of international biomass estimates by imposing consistent methods and a globally coherent sample frame. The methods presented here constitute a globally extensible approach for generating a simple random sample from the global GLAS dataset, enabling its use in forest inventory activities.

【 授权许可】

   
2012 Healey et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

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