Mapping Boreal Forest Species and Canopy Height using Airborne SAR and Lidar Data in Interior Alaska

Yuhuan Zhao, Richard H. Chen, Kazem Bakian-Dogaheh, Jane Whitcomb, Yonghong Yi, John S. Kimball, Mahta Moghaddam

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

Accurate vegetation information is essential for analyzing above-ground biomass and understanding subsurface characteristics, such as root biomasss, soil organic matter and soil moisture profiles. This paper investigates novel mappings of forest species and canopy height in interior Alaska. We employ Random Forests to train a regression model for canopy height mapping and a classification model for forest species mapping utilizing L-band and P-band Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar(UAVSAR). For canopy height, canopy height model (CHM) data derived from Goddard's LiDAR, Hyperspectral, and Thermal Imager (G-LiHT) are treated as ground truth. For forest species prediction, Tanana Valley State Forest (TVSF) Timber Inventory and Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data are used as reference. The experimental results show the proposed method yields a root-mean-square error of 1.90 m for forest height estimation and overall accuracy of 79.54% for forest species classification. They also demonstrate the feasibility of obtaining precise vegetation information by data-driven methods, which can be further used to enhance forest radar scattering forward models.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationIGARSS 2022 - 2022 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages4955-4958
Number of pages4
ISBN (Electronic)9781665427920
DOIs
StatePublished - 2022
Event2022 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, IGARSS 2022 - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Duration: Jul 17 2022Jul 22 2022

Publication series

NameInternational Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS)
Volume2022-July

Conference

Conference2022 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, IGARSS 2022
Country/TerritoryMalaysia
CityKuala Lumpur
Period07/17/2207/22/22

Keywords

  • FIA
  • G-LiHT
  • Random Forests
  • TVSF timber inventory
  • UAVSAR
  • forest canopy height
  • forest species

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