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Assessing Performance of Tomo-SAR and Backscattering Coefficient for Hemi-Boreal Forest Aboveground Biomass Estimation

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Abstract

Tomo-SAR technique has been used for hemi-boreal forest height and further forest biomass estimation through allometric equation. Backscattering coefficient especially in longer wavelength (L- or P-band) is thought as a useful parameter for hemi-boreal forest biomass retrieval. The aim of this paper is to assess the performance of vertical backscattering power and backscattering coefficient for hemi-boreal forest aboveground biomass (AGB) estimation with airborne P-band data. The test site locates in southern Sweden called Remningstorp test site, and the in-situ forest AGB ranges from 14 t/ha to 245 t/ha at stand level. Multi-baseline P-band Pol-InSAR data in repeat-path mode collected during March and May in 2007 at Remningstorp test site was used. We found that the correlation coefficient (R) between backscattering coefficient of P-band HH polarization and the in-situ forest biomass reached 0.87. The R for P-band VV backscattering power at 5 m is 0.71 and 10 m is 0.72. Backscattering coefficient in HH polarization and vertical backscattering power at 5 m and 10 m were applied to construct a model for hemi-boreal forest AGB estimation by backward step-wise regression and cross-validation approach. The results showed that the estimated forest AGB ranges from 19 to 240 t/ha, and the constructed model obtained a higher R and smaller RMSE, the value of R is 0.91, RMSE is 30.43 t/ha at Remningstorp test site.

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Acknowledgments

Thanks to ESA/DLR for provision of the Remningstorp Pol-InSAR data sets and in-situ forest AGB data for the MOST-ESA DRAGON Pol-InSAR project. This work was partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 41401480, the National key basic research development program (973 Program) sub-project under Grant 2013CB733404, and the Introduction talent project in Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications under grant NY213105.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Geographic and Biologic Information, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, No. 9 Wenyuan road, Yadong new town, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 210046, China

    Wenmei Li & Chang Jiang

  2. Institute of forest resources information technique, Chinese Academy of Forestry, No.1 Dongxiaofu, Haidian district, Beijing, 100091, China

    Erxue Chen, Zengyuan Li & Wangfei Zhang

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  1. Wenmei Li
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  2. Erxue Chen
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  3. Zengyuan Li
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  5. Chang Jiang
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Correspondence to Wenmei Li.

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Li, W., Chen, E., Li, Z. et al. Assessing Performance of Tomo-SAR and Backscattering Coefficient for Hemi-Boreal Forest Aboveground Biomass Estimation. J Indian Soc Remote Sens 44, 41–48 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12524-015-0468-y

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