High‐resolution forest canopy height estimation in an African blue carbon ecosystem

Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation

David Lagomasino¹  Temilola Fatoyinbo²  Seung-Kuk Lee² 

[1] Universities Space Research Association, Columbia, Maryland;NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland

关键词: Canopy height;    DSM;    HRSI;    mangroves;    remote sensing;    stereo analysis;   

DOI  :  10.1002/rse2.3

来源: Wiley

【 摘 要 】

Abstract

Mangrove forests are one of the most productive and carbon dense ecosystems that are only found at tidally inundated coastal areas. Forest canopy height is an important measure for modeling carbon and biomass dynamics, as well as land cover change. By taking advantage of the flat terrain and dense canopy cover, the present study derived digital surface models (DSMs) using stereo-photogrammetric techniques on high-resolution spaceborne imagery (HRSI) for southern Mozambique. A mean-weighted ground surface elevation factor was subtracted from the HRSI DSM to accurately estimate the canopy height in mangrove forests in southern Mozambique. The mean and H100 tree height measured in both the field and with the digital canopy model provided the most accurate results with a vertical error of 1.18–1.84 m, respectively. Distinct patterns were identified in the HRSI canopy height map that could not be discerned from coarse shuttle radar topography mission canopy maps even though the mode and distribution of canopy heights were similar over the same area. Through further investigation, HRSI DSMs have the potential of providing a new type of three-dimensional dataset that could serve as calibration/validation data for other DSMs generated from spaceborne datasets with much larger global coverage. HSRI DSMs could be used in lieu of Lidar acquisitions for canopy height and forest biomass estimation, and be combined with passive optical data to improve land cover classifications.

【 授权许可】

CC BY-NC   
© 2015 The Authors Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Zoological Society of London.

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.