Mapping Deciduous Rubber Plantation Areas and Stand Ages with PALSAR and Landsat Images

Remote Sensing

Weili Kou⁵  Xiangming Xiao⁴  Jinwei Dong⁴  Shu Gan¹  Deli Zhai³  Geli Zhang⁴  Yuanwei Qin⁴  Li Li⁶  Nicolas Baghdadi² 

[1] Faculty of Land Resource Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650093, China; E-Mail:;id="af1-remotesensing-07-01048">1School of Computer Science and Information, Southwest Forestry University, Kunming 650224, Chin;Centre for Mountain Ecosystem Studies (CMES), Kunming Institute of Botany (CAS), Lanhei Road132,Heilongtan, Kunming 650201, China; E-Mail:;Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, and Center for Spatial Analysis, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, USA; E-Mails:School of Computer Science and Information, Southwest Forestry University, Kunming 650224, China;;College of Information & Electrical Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China; E-Mail:

关键词: stand age;    rubber plantations;    phenology;    Xishuangbanna;    Landsat;    PALSAR;   

DOI  :  10.3390/rs70101048

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Accurate and updated finer resolution maps of rubber plantations and stand ages are needed to understand and assess the impacts of rubber plantations on regional ecosystem processes. This study presented a simple method for mapping rubber plantation areas and their stand ages by integration of PALSAR 50-m mosaic images and multi-temporal Landsat TM/ETM+ images. The L-band PALSAR 50-m mosaic images were used to map forests (including both natural forests and rubber trees) and non-forests. For those PALSAR-based forest pixels, we analyzed the multi-temporal Landsat TM/ETM+ images from 2000 to 2009. We first studied phenological signatures of deciduous rubber plantations (defoliation and foliation) and natural forests through analysis of surface reflectance, Normal Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), and Land Surface Water Index (LSWI) and generated a map of rubber plantations in 2009. We then analyzed phenological signatures of rubber plantations with different stand ages and generated a map, in 2009, of rubber plantation stand ages (≤5, 6–10, >10 years-old) based on multi-temporal Landsat images. The resultant maps clearly illustrated how rubber plantations have expanded into the mountains in the study area over the years. The results in this study demonstrate the potential of integrating microwave (e.g., PALSAR) and optical remote sensing in the characterization of rubber plantations and their expansion over time.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.