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Advances in Remote Sensing for Global Forest Monitoring
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Advances in Remote Sensing for Global Forest Monitoring

A special issue of Remote Sensing (ISSN 2072-4292). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Remote Sensing".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2020) | Viewed by 80609

Printed Edition Available!
A printed edition of this Special Issue is available here.

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Erkki Tomppo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Department of Electronics and Nanoengineering, Aalto University, Aalto, Finland
2. Department of Forest Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
Interests: forest inventory; forest remote sensing; statistical methods
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Jaan Praks

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Electronics and Nanoengineering, Aalto University, FI-00076 AALTO, Finland
Interests: small satellite missions; space technology; microwave earth observation; SAR remote sensing; hyperspectral remote sensing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Guangxing Wang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Geography and Environmental Resources, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL, USA
Interests: remote sensing; GIS; spatial statistics and their applications to geography; natural and environmental resources with the specific areas; land use and land cover change detection; sampling design; forest inventory and forest growth modelling; forest carbon sequestration modeling and mapping; environmental dynamic modeling and quality assessment; quality assessment and spatial uncertainty analysis of remote sensing and GIS products
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Lars T. Waser

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Swiss National Forest Inventory, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zuercherstr. 111, CH-8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland
Interests: national forest inventory; spatially estimating forest parameters; tree species; growing stock; change detection; biodiversity; LiDAR; airborne and spaceborne; image-matching; canopy height model; land cover/land use change

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The need for temporarily, spatially, and thematically accurate information about forests is increasing because of their role in global carbon balance and sustanaibly social, economic, ecological, and cultural development. Some countries in the world have already had statistically sound forest inventories for 100 years, while others are still lacking, which makes the global information about forest statistics inaccurate.

Globally, forested areas decreased annually in the period of 2010–2015 by 0.08% (3.3 million hectares) (United Nations FAO 2016), although the increases occurred in some regions, for example, in East Asia, Western and Central Asia, Europe, Oceania, and North and Central America, which slowed down the global decrease. Based on the reports from the countries with full-time series, on the other hand, the growing stock has been estimated to increase annually by 0.17% (710 million cubic metres), while the above ground biomass decreased annually by 0.02% (92 million tons). 

Remote sensing has been utilized for national forest inventories for many decades, using mainly airborne, but increasingly, spaceborne remote sensing. Remotely sensed data have also been used at global level by FAO for the purpose of comparison and as complementary information, since 1980. Some institutes have attempted to conduct global forest inventories, sometimes providing contradicting information. This implies that remote sensing-based approaches are vulnerable for misclassification and the inaccurate estimation of forest parameters and changes, such as the recognition of temporarily un-stocked forests, forest degradation, and species composition, as well as in strictly following the globally adopted definitions.

The new active remote sensing technology, especially SAR, which is becoming increasingly available, provides new opportunities for large area and global forest inventory, and enough monitoring frequently, in a cost-efficient way. Technically and statistically sound methods are still being developed. This Special Issue invites research papers describing state-of-the-art in the field of remote sensing for forest parameter estimation and change monitoring at national, continental, or global scales. The topics could be, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Large area forest inentory and monitoring methods
  • Forest area and change estimation with multi-source data
  • Forest parameter estimation with multi-source data
  • Spatial sampling methods and sampling designs
  • Biomass estimation
  • Biodiversity
  • Forest degradation
  • Approaches for assessing uncertainties when using statistically sound inventory methods and multi-source data
  • Use of time series with SAR and optical remote sensing data
  • SAR interferometry and polarimetry

Prof. Dr. Erkki Tomppo
Assist. Prof. Dr. Jaan Praks
Prof. Dr. Guangxing Wang
Dr. Lars T. Waser
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Remote Sensing is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • global forest
  • large area estimation
  • forest inventory
  • forest monitoring
  • multi-source remote sensing
  • Sentinel and Radarsat
  • SAR remote sensing: PolSAR, InSAR, PolinSAR
  • error and uncertainty
  • time series
  • open source

Published Papers (15 papers)

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Editorial

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4 pages, 170 KiB  
Editorial
Editorial Summary, Remote Sensing Special Issue “Advances in Remote Sensing for Global Forest Monitoring”
by Erkki Tomppo, Guangxing Wang, Jaan Praks, Ronald E. McRoberts and Lars T. Waser
Remote Sens. 2021, 13(4), 597; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13040597 - 08 Feb 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2413
Abstract
The need for timely, spatially, and thematically accurate information regarding forests is increasing because of the key role of forests in the global carbon balance and sustainable social, economic, ecological, and cultural development [...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Remote Sensing for Global Forest Monitoring)

Research

Jump to: Editorial, Review

28 pages, 29610 KiB  
Article
Detection of Forest Windstorm Damages with Multitemporal SAR Data—A Case Study: Finland
by Erkki Tomppo, Ghasem Ronoud, Oleg Antropov, Harri Hytönen and Jaan Praks
Remote Sens. 2021, 13(3), 383; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13030383 - 22 Jan 2021
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 3448
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to develop methods to localize forest windstorm damages, assess their severity and estimate the total damaged area using space-borne SAR data. The development of the methods is the first step towards an operational system for near-real-time windstorm [...] Read more.
The purpose of this study was to develop methods to localize forest windstorm damages, assess their severity and estimate the total damaged area using space-borne SAR data. The development of the methods is the first step towards an operational system for near-real-time windstorm damage monitoring, with a latency of only a few days after the storm event in the best case. Windstorm detection using SAR data is not trivial, particularly at C-band. It can be expected that a large-area and severe windstorm damage may affect backscatter similar to clear cutting operation, that is, decrease the backscatter intensity, while a small area damage may increase the backscatter of the neighboring area, due to various scattering mechanisms. The remaining debris and temporal variation in the weather conditions and possible freeze–thaw transitions also affect observed backscatter changes. Three candidate windstorm detection methods were suggested, based on the improved k-nn method, multinomial logistic regression and support vector machine classification. The approaches use multitemporal ESA Sentinel-1 C-band SAR data and were evaluated in Southern Finland using wind damage data from the summer 2017, together with 27 Sentinel-1 scenes acquired in 2017 and other geo-referenced data. The stands correctly predicted severity category corresponded to 79% of the number of the stands in the validation data, and already 75% when only one Sentinel-1 scene after the damage was used. Thus, the damaged forests can potentially be localized with proposed tools within less than one week after the storm damage. In this study, the achieved latency was only two days. Our preliminary results also indicate that the damages can be localized even without separate training data. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Remote Sensing for Global Forest Monitoring)
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22 pages, 5432 KiB  
Article
Forest Drought Response Index (ForDRI): A New Combined Model to Monitor Forest Drought in the Eastern United States
by Tsegaye Tadesse, David Y. Hollinger, Yared A. Bayissa, Mark Svoboda, Brian Fuchs, Beichen Zhang, Getachew Demissie, Brian D. Wardlow, Gil Bohrer, Kenneth L. Clark, Ankur R. Desai, Lianhong Gu, Asko Noormets, Kimberly A. Novick and Andrew D. Richardson
Remote Sens. 2020, 12(21), 3605; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12213605 - 03 Nov 2020
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 5185
Abstract
Monitoring drought impacts in forest ecosystems is a complex process because forest ecosystems are composed of different species with heterogeneous structural compositions. Even though forest drought status is a key control on the carbon cycle, very few indices exist to monitor and predict [...] Read more.
Monitoring drought impacts in forest ecosystems is a complex process because forest ecosystems are composed of different species with heterogeneous structural compositions. Even though forest drought status is a key control on the carbon cycle, very few indices exist to monitor and predict forest drought stress. The Forest Drought Indicator (ForDRI) is a new monitoring tool developed by the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) to identify forest drought stress. ForDRI integrates 12 types of data, including satellite, climate, evaporative demand, ground water, and soil moisture, into a single hybrid index to estimate tree stress. The model uses Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to determine the contribution of each input variable based on its covariance in the historical records (2003–2017). A 15-year time series of 780 ForDRI maps at a weekly interval were produced. The ForDRI values at a 12.5km spatial resolution were compared with normalized weekly Bowen ratio data, a biophysically based indicator of stress, from nine AmeriFlux sites. There were strong and significant correlations between Bowen ratio data and ForDRI at sites that had experienced intense drought. In addition, tree ring annual increment data at eight sites in four eastern U.S. national parks were compared with ForDRI values at the corresponding sites. The correlation between ForDRI and tree ring increments at the selected eight sites during the summer season ranged between 0.46 and 0.75. Generally, the correlation between the ForDRI and normalized Bowen ratio or tree ring increment are reasonably good and indicate the usefulness of the ForDRI model for estimating drought stress and providing decision support on forest drought management. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Remote Sensing for Global Forest Monitoring)
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18 pages, 4575 KiB  
Article
Large Uncertainty on Forest Area Change in the Early 21st Century among Widely Used Global Land Cover Datasets
by He Chen, Zhenzhong Zeng, Jie Wu, Liqing Peng, Venkataraman Lakshmi, Hong Yang and Junguo Liu
Remote Sens. 2020, 12(21), 3502; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12213502 - 25 Oct 2020
Cited by 24 | Viewed by 3652
Abstract
Forests play an important role in the Earth’s system. Understanding the states and changes in global forests is vital for ecological assessments and forest policy guidance. However, there is no consensus on how global forests have changed based on current datasets. In this [...] Read more.
Forests play an important role in the Earth’s system. Understanding the states and changes in global forests is vital for ecological assessments and forest policy guidance. However, there is no consensus on how global forests have changed based on current datasets. In this study, five global land cover datasets and Global Forest Resources Assessments (FRA) were assessed to reveal uncertainties in the global forest changes in the early 21st century. These datasets displayed substantial divergences in total area, spatial distribution, latitudinal profile, and annual area change from 2001 to 2012. These datasets also display completely divergent conclusions on forest area changes for different countries. Among the datasets, total forest area changes range from an increase of 1.7 × 106 km2 to a decrease of 1.6 × 106 km2. All the datasets show deforestation in the tropics. The accuracies of the datasets in detecting forest cover changes were evaluated by a global land cover validation dataset. The spatial patterns of accuracies are inconsistent among the datasets. This study calls for the development of a more accurate database to support forest policies and to contribute to global actions against climate change. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Remote Sensing for Global Forest Monitoring)
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24 pages, 7784 KiB  
Article
A Model-Based Volume Estimator that Accounts for Both Land Cover Misclassification and Model Prediction Uncertainty
by Jessica Esteban, Ronald E. McRoberts, Alfredo Fernández-Landa, José Luis Tomé and Miguel Marchamalo
Remote Sens. 2020, 12(20), 3360; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12203360 - 15 Oct 2020
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2248
Abstract
Forest/non-forest and forest species maps are often used by forest inventory programs in the forest estimation process. For example, some inventory programs establish field plots only on lands corresponding to the forest portion of a forest/non-forest map and use species-specific area estimates obtained [...] Read more.
Forest/non-forest and forest species maps are often used by forest inventory programs in the forest estimation process. For example, some inventory programs establish field plots only on lands corresponding to the forest portion of a forest/non-forest map and use species-specific area estimates obtained from those maps to support the estimation of species-specific volume (V) totals. Despite the general use of these maps, the effects of their uncertainties are commonly ignored with the result that estimates might be unreliable. The goal of this study is to estimate the effects of the uncertainty of forest species maps used in the sampling and estimation processes. Random forest (RF) per-pixel predictions were used with model-based inference to estimate V per unit area for the six main forest species of La Rioja, Spain. RF models for predicting V were constructed using field plot information from the Spanish National Forest Inventory and airborne laser scanning data. To limit the prediction of V to pixels classified as one of the main forest species assessed, a forest species map was constructed using Landsat and auxiliary information. Bootstrapping techniques were implemented to estimate the total uncertainty of the V estimates and accommodated both the effects of uncertainty in the Landsat forest species map and the effects of plot-to-plot sampling variability on training data used to construct the RF V models. Standard errors of species-specific total V estimates increased from 2–9% to 3–22% when the effects of map uncertainty were incorporated into the uncertainty assessment. The workflow achieved satisfactory results and revealed that the effects of map uncertainty are not negligible, especially for open-grown and less frequently occurring forest species for which greater variability was evident in the mapping and estimation process. The effects of forest map uncertainty are greater for species-specific area estimation than for the selection of field plots used to calibrate the RF model. Additional research to generalize the conclusions beyond Mediterranean to other forest environments is recommended. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Remote Sensing for Global Forest Monitoring)
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23 pages, 20267 KiB  
Article
An End-to-End Deep Fusion Model for Mapping Forests at Tree Species Levels with High Spatial Resolution Satellite Imagery
by Ying Guo, Zengyuan Li, Erxue Chen, Xu Zhang, Lei Zhao, Enen Xu, Yanan Hou and Rui Sun
Remote Sens. 2020, 12(20), 3324; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12203324 - 13 Oct 2020
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 7157
Abstract
Mapping the distribution of forest resources at tree species levels is important due to their strong association with many quantitative and qualitative indicators. With the ongoing development of artificial intelligence technologies, the effectiveness of deep-learning classification models for high spatial resolution (HSR) remote [...] Read more.
Mapping the distribution of forest resources at tree species levels is important due to their strong association with many quantitative and qualitative indicators. With the ongoing development of artificial intelligence technologies, the effectiveness of deep-learning classification models for high spatial resolution (HSR) remote sensing images has been proved. However, due to the poor statistical separability and complex scenarios, it is still challenging to realize fully automated and highly accurate forest types at tree species level mapping. To solve the problem, a novel end-to-end deep learning fusion method for HSR remote sensing images was developed by combining the advantageous properties of multi-modality representations and the powerful features of post-processing step to optimize the forest classification performance refined to the dominant tree species level in an automated way. The structure of the proposed model consisted of a two-branch fully convolutional network (dual-FCN8s) and a conditional random field as recurrent neural network (CRFasRNN), which named dual-FCN8s-CRFasRNN in the paper. By constructing a dual-FCN8s network, the dual-FCN8s-CRFasRNN extracted and fused multi-modality features to recover a high-resolution and strong semantic feature representation. By imbedding the CRFasRNN module into the network as post-processing step, the dual-FCN8s-CRFasRNN optimized the classification result in an automatic manner and generated the result with explicit category information. Quantitative evaluations on China’s Gaofen-2 (GF-2) HSR satellite data showed that the dual-FCN8s-CRFasRNN provided a competitive performance with an overall classification accuracy (OA) of 90.10%, a Kappa coefficient of 0.8872 in the Wangyedian forest farm, and an OA of 74.39%, a Kappa coefficient of 0.6973 in the GaoFeng forest farm, respectively. Experiment results also showed that the proposed model got higher OA and Kappa coefficient metrics than other four recently developed deep learning methods and achieved a better trade-off between automaticity and accuracy, which further confirmed the applicability and superiority of the dual-FCN8s-CRFasRNN in forest types at tree species level mapping tasks. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Remote Sensing for Global Forest Monitoring)
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Graphical abstract

32 pages, 11808 KiB  
Article
Wide-Area Near-Real-Time Monitoring of Tropical Forest Degradation and Deforestation Using Sentinel-1
by Dirk Hoekman, Boris Kooij, Marcela Quiñones, Sam Vellekoop, Ita Carolita, Syarif Budhiman, Rahmat Arief and Orbita Roswintiarti
Remote Sens. 2020, 12(19), 3263; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12193263 - 08 Oct 2020
Cited by 30 | Viewed by 7618
Abstract
The use of Sentinel-1 (S1) radar for wide-area, near-real-time (NRT) tropical-forest-change monitoring is discussed, with particular attention to forest degradation and deforestation. Since forest change can relate to processes ranging from high-impact, large-scale conversion to low-impact, selective logging, and can occur in sites [...] Read more.
The use of Sentinel-1 (S1) radar for wide-area, near-real-time (NRT) tropical-forest-change monitoring is discussed, with particular attention to forest degradation and deforestation. Since forest change can relate to processes ranging from high-impact, large-scale conversion to low-impact, selective logging, and can occur in sites having variable topographic and environmental properties such as mountain slopes and wetlands, a single approach is insufficient. The system introduced here combines time-series analysis of small objects identified in S1 data, i.e., segments containing linear features and apparent small-scale disturbances. A physical model is introduced for quantifying the size of small (upper-) canopy gaps. Deforestation detection was evaluated for several forest landscapes in the Amazon and Borneo. Using the default system settings, the false alarm rate (FAR) is very low (less than 1%), and the missed detection rate (MDR) varies between 1.9% ± 1.1% and 18.6% ± 1.0% (90% confidence level). For peatland landscapes, short radar detection delays up to several weeks due to high levels of soil moisture may occur, while, in comparison, for optical systems, detection delays up to 10 months were found due to cloud cover. In peat swamp forests, narrow linear canopy gaps (road and canal systems) could be detected with an overall accuracy of 85.5%, including many gaps barely visible on hi-res SPOT-6/7 images, which were used for validation. Compared to optical data, subtle degradation signals are easier to detect and are not quickly lost over time due to fast re-vegetation. Although it is possible to estimate an effective forest-cover loss, for example, due to selective logging, and results are spatiotemporally consistent with Sentinel-2 and TerraSAR-X reference data, quantitative validation without extensive field data and/or large hi-res radar datasets, such as TerraSAR-X, remains a challenge. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Remote Sensing for Global Forest Monitoring)
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23 pages, 6651 KiB  
Article
A Near Real-Time Method for Forest Change Detection Based on a Structural Time Series Model and the Kalman Filter
by Martin Puhm, Janik Deutscher, Manuela Hirschmugl, Andreas Wimmer, Ursula Schmitt and Mathias Schardt
Remote Sens. 2020, 12(19), 3135; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12193135 - 24 Sep 2020
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 4380
Abstract
The increasing availability of dense time series of earth observation data has incited a growing interest in time series analysis for vegetation monitoring and change detection. Vegetation monitoring algorithms need to deal with several time series characteristics such as seasonality, irregular sampling intervals, [...] Read more.
The increasing availability of dense time series of earth observation data has incited a growing interest in time series analysis for vegetation monitoring and change detection. Vegetation monitoring algorithms need to deal with several time series characteristics such as seasonality, irregular sampling intervals, and signal artefacts. While common algorithms based on deterministic harmonic regression models account for intra-annual seasonality, inter-annual variations of the seasonal pattern related to shifts in vegetation phenology due to different temperature and rainfall are usually not accounted for. We propose a transition to stochastic modelling and present a near real-time change detection method that combines a structural time series model with the Kalman filter. The model continuously adapts to new observations and allows to better separate phenology-related deviations from vegetation anomalies or land cover changes. The method is tested in a forest change detection application aiming at the assessment of damages caused by storm events and insect calamities. Forest changes are detected based on the cumulative sum control chart (CUSUM) which is used to decide if new observations deviate from model-based forecasts. The performance is evaluated in two test sites, one in Malawi (dry tropical forest) and one in Austria (temperate deciduous, coniferous and mixed forests) based on Sentinel-2 time series. Both forest areas are characterized by a distinct, but temporally varying leaf-off season. The presented change detection method shows overall accuracies above 99%, users’ accuracies of 76.8% to 88.6%, and producers’ accuracies of 68.2% to 80.4% for the forest change stratum (minimum mapping unit: 0.1 ha). Results are based on visually interpreted points derived by stratified random sampling. A further analysis revealed that increasing the time series density by merging data from two Sentinel-2 orbits yields better forest change detection accuracies in comparison to using data from one orbit only. The resulting increase in users’ accuracy amounts to 7.6%. The presented method is capable of near real-time processing and could be used for a variety of automated forest monitoring applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Remote Sensing for Global Forest Monitoring)
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20 pages, 2076 KiB  
Article
Characterizing the Error and Bias of Remotely Sensed LAI Products: An Example for Tropical and Subtropical Evergreen Forests in South China
by Yuan Zhao, Xiaoqiu Chen, Thomas Luke Smallman, Sophie Flack-Prain, David T. Milodowski and Mathew Williams
Remote Sens. 2020, 12(19), 3122; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12193122 - 23 Sep 2020
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3300
Abstract
Leaf area is a key parameter underpinning ecosystem carbon, water and energy exchanges via photosynthesis, transpiration and absorption of radiation, from local to global scales. Satellite-based Earth Observation (EO) can provide estimates of leaf area index (LAI) with global coverage and high temporal [...] Read more.
Leaf area is a key parameter underpinning ecosystem carbon, water and energy exchanges via photosynthesis, transpiration and absorption of radiation, from local to global scales. Satellite-based Earth Observation (EO) can provide estimates of leaf area index (LAI) with global coverage and high temporal frequency. However, the error and bias contained within these EO products and their variation in time and across spatial resolutions remain poorly understood. Here, we used nearly 8000 in situ measurements of LAI from six forest environments in southern China to evaluate the magnitude, uncertainty, and dynamics of three widely used EO LAI products. The finer spatial resolution GEOV3 PROBA-V 300 m LAI product best estimates the observed LAI from a multi-site dataset (R2 = 0.45, bias = −0.54 m2 m−2, RMSE = 1.21 m2 m−2) and importantly captures canopy dynamics well, including the amplitude and phase. The GEOV2 PROBA-V 1 km LAI product performed the next best (R2 = 0.36, bias = −2.04 m2 m−2, RMSE = 2.32 m2 m−2) followed by MODIS 500 m LAI (R2 = 0.20, bias = −1.47 m2 m−2, RMSE = 2.29 m2 m−2). The MODIS 500 m product did not capture the temporal dynamics observed in situ across southern China. The uncertainties estimated by each of the EO products are substantially smaller (3–5 times) than the observed bias for EO products against in situ measurements. Thus, reported product uncertainties are substantially underestimated and do not fully account for their total uncertainty. Overall, our analysis indicates that both the retrieval algorithm and spatial resolution play an important role in accurately estimating LAI for the dense canopy forests in Southern China. When constraining models of the carbon cycle and other ecosystem processes are run, studies should assume that current EO product LAI uncertainty estimates underestimate their true uncertainty value. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Remote Sensing for Global Forest Monitoring)
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22 pages, 5793 KiB  
Article
Analysis of the Spatial Differences in Canopy Height Models from UAV LiDAR and Photogrammetry
by Qingwang Liu, Liyong Fu, Qiao Chen, Guangxing Wang, Peng Luo, Ram P. Sharma, Peng He, Mei Li, Mengxi Wang and Guangshuang Duan
Remote Sens. 2020, 12(18), 2884; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12182884 - 06 Sep 2020
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3615
Abstract
Forest canopy height is one of the most important spatial characteristics for forest resource inventories and forest ecosystem modeling. Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) can be used to accurately detect canopy surface and terrain information from the backscattering signals of laser pulses, while [...] Read more.
Forest canopy height is one of the most important spatial characteristics for forest resource inventories and forest ecosystem modeling. Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) can be used to accurately detect canopy surface and terrain information from the backscattering signals of laser pulses, while photogrammetry tends to accurately depict the canopy surface envelope. The spatial differences between the canopy surfaces estimated by LiDAR and photogrammetry have not been investigated in depth. Thus, this study aims to assess LiDAR and photogrammetry point clouds and analyze the spatial differences in canopy heights. The study site is located in the Jigongshan National Nature Reserve of Henan Province, Central China. Six data sets, including one LiDAR data set and five photogrammetry data sets captured from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), were used to estimate the forest canopy heights. Three spatial distribution descriptors, namely, the effective cell ratio (ECR), point cloud homogeneity (PCH) and point cloud redundancy (PCR), were developed to assess the LiDAR and photogrammetry point clouds in the grid. The ordinary neighbor (ON) and constrained neighbor (CN) interpolation algorithms were used to fill void cells in digital surface models (DSMs) and canopy height models (CHMs). The CN algorithm could be used to distinguish small and large holes in the CHMs. The optimal spatial resolution was analyzed according to the ECR changes of DSMs or CHMs resulting from the CN algorithms. Large negative and positive variations were observed between the LiDAR and photogrammetry canopy heights. The stratified mean difference in canopy heights increased gradually from negative to positive when the canopy heights were greater than 3 m, which means that photogrammetry tends to overestimate low canopy heights and underestimate high canopy heights. The CN interpolation algorithm achieved smaller relative root mean square errors than the ON interpolation algorithm. This article provides an operational method for the spatial assessment of point clouds and suggests that the variations between LiDAR and photogrammetry CHMs should be considered when modeling forest parameters. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Remote Sensing for Global Forest Monitoring)
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22 pages, 5391 KiB  
Article
Prediction of Individual Tree Diameter and Height to Crown Base Using Nonlinear Simultaneous Regression and Airborne LiDAR Data
by Zhaohui Yang, Qingwang Liu, Peng Luo, Qiaolin Ye, Guangshuang Duan, Ram P. Sharma, Huiru Zhang, Guangxing Wang and Liyong Fu
Remote Sens. 2020, 12(14), 2238; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12142238 - 13 Jul 2020
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 3317
Abstract
The forest growth and yield models, which are used as important decision-support tools in forest management, are commonly based on the individual tree characteristics, such as diameter at breast height (DBH), crown ratio, and height to crown base (HCB). Taking direct measurements for [...] Read more.
The forest growth and yield models, which are used as important decision-support tools in forest management, are commonly based on the individual tree characteristics, such as diameter at breast height (DBH), crown ratio, and height to crown base (HCB). Taking direct measurements for DBH and HCB through the ground-based methods is cumbersome and costly. The indirect method of getting such information is possible from remote sensing databases, which can be used to build DBH and HCB prediction models. The DBH and HCB of the same trees are significantly correlated, and so their inherent correlations need to be appropriately accounted for in the DBH and HCB models. However, all the existing DBH and HCB models, including models based on light detection and ranging (LiDAR) have ignored such correlations and thus failed to account for the compatibility of DBH and HCB estimates, in addition to disregarding measurement errors. To address these problems, we developed a compatible simultaneous equation system of DBH and HCB error-in-variable (EIV) models using LiDAR-derived data and ground-measurements for 510 Picea crassifolia Kom trees in northwest China. Four versatile algorithms, such as nonlinear seemingly unrelated regression (NSUR), two-stage least square (2SLS) regression, three-stage least square (3SLS) regression, and full information maximum likelihood (FIML) were evaluated for their estimating efficiencies and precisions for a simultaneous equation system of DBH and HCB EIV models. In addition, two other model structures, namely, nonlinear least squares with HCB estimation not based on the DBH (NLS and NBD) and nonlinear least squares with HCB estimation based on the DBH (NLS and BD) were also developed, and their fitting precisions with a simultaneous equation system compared. The leave-one-out cross-validation method was applied to evaluate all estimating algorithms and their resulting models. We found that only the simultaneous equation system could illustrate the effect of errors associated with the regressors on the response variables (DBH and HCB) and guaranteed the compatibility between the DBH and HCB models at an individual level. In addition, such an established system also effectively accounted for the inherent correlations between DBH with HCB. However, both the NLS and BD model and the NLS and NBD model did not show these properties. The precision of a simultaneous equation system developed using NSUR appeared the best among all the evaluated algorithms. Our equation system does not require the stand-level information as input, but it does require the information of tree height, crown width, and crown projection area, all of which can be readily derived from LiDAR imagery using the delineation algorithms and ground-based DBH measurements. Our results indicate that NSUR is a more reliable and quicker algorithm for developing DBH and HCB models using large scale LiDAR-based datasets. The novelty of this study is that the compatibility problem of the DBH model and the HCB EIV model was properly addressed, and the potential algorithms were compared to choose the most suitable one (NSUR). The presented method and algorithm will be useful for establishing similar compatible equation systems of tree DBH and HCB EIV models for other tree species. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Remote Sensing for Global Forest Monitoring)
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27 pages, 5291 KiB  
Article
Land Use/Land Cover Mapping Using Multitemporal Sentinel-2 Imagery and Four Classification Methods—A Case Study from Dak Nong, Vietnam
by Huong Thi Thanh Nguyen, Trung Minh Doan, Erkki Tomppo and Ronald E. McRoberts
Remote Sens. 2020, 12(9), 1367; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12091367 - 26 Apr 2020
Cited by 61 | Viewed by 15911
Abstract
Information on land use and land cover (LULC) including forest cover is important for the development of strategies for land planning and management. Satellite remotely sensed data of varying resolutions have been an unmatched source of such information that can be used to [...] Read more.
Information on land use and land cover (LULC) including forest cover is important for the development of strategies for land planning and management. Satellite remotely sensed data of varying resolutions have been an unmatched source of such information that can be used to produce estimates with a greater degree of confidence than traditional inventory estimates. However, use of these data has always been a challenge in tropical regions owing to the complexity of the biophysical environment, clouds, and haze, and atmospheric moisture content, all of which impede accurate LULC classification. We tested a parametric classifier (logistic regression) and three non-parametric machine learning classifiers (improved k-nearest neighbors, random forests, and support vector machine) for classification of multi-temporal Sentinel 2 satellite imagery into LULC categories in Dak Nong province, Vietnam. A total of 446 images, 235 from the year 2017 and 211 from the year 2018, were pre-processed to gain high quality images for mapping LULC in the 6516 km2 study area. The Sentinel 2 images were tested and classified separately for four temporal periods: (i) dry season, (ii) rainy season, (iii) the entirety of the year 2017, and (iv) the combination of dry and rainy seasons. Eleven different LULC classes were discriminated of which five were forest classes. For each combination of temporal image set and classifier, a confusion matrix was constructed using independent reference data and pixel classifications, and the area on the ground of each class was estimated. For overall temporal periods and classifiers, overall accuracy ranged from 63.9% to 80.3%, and the Kappa coefficient ranged from 0.611 to 0.813. Area estimates for individual classes ranged from 70 km2 (1% of the study area) to 2200 km2 (34% of the study area) with greater uncertainties for smaller classes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Remote Sensing for Global Forest Monitoring)
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22 pages, 33791 KiB  
Article
Predicting Forest Cover in Distinct Ecosystems: The Potential of Multi-Source Sentinel-1 and -2 Data Fusion
by Kai Heckel, Marcel Urban, Patrick Schratz, Miguel D. Mahecha and Christiane Schmullius
Remote Sens. 2020, 12(2), 302; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12020302 - 17 Jan 2020
Cited by 45 | Viewed by 8661
Abstract
The fusion of microwave and optical data sets is expected to provide great potential for the derivation of forest cover around the globe. As Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 are now both operating in twin mode, they can provide an unprecedented data source to build [...] Read more.
The fusion of microwave and optical data sets is expected to provide great potential for the derivation of forest cover around the globe. As Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 are now both operating in twin mode, they can provide an unprecedented data source to build dense spatial and temporal high-resolution time series across a variety of wavelengths. This study investigates (i) the ability of the individual sensors and (ii) their joint potential to delineate forest cover for study sites in two highly varied landscapes located in Germany (temperate dense mixed forests) and South Africa (open savanna woody vegetation and forest plantations). We used multi-temporal Sentinel-1 and single time steps of Sentinel-2 data in combination to derive accurate forest/non-forest (FNF) information via machine-learning classifiers. The forest classification accuracies were 90.9% and 93.2% for South Africa and Thuringia, respectively, estimated while using autocorrelation corrected spatial cross-validation (CV) for the fused data set. Sentinel-1 only classifications provided the lowest overall accuracy of 87.5%, while Sentinel-2 based classifications led to higher accuracies of 91.9%. Sentinel-2 short-wave infrared (SWIR) channels, biophysical parameters (Leaf Area Index (LAI), and Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FAPAR)) and the lower spectrum of the Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) time series were found to be most distinctive in the detection of forest cover. In contrast to homogenous forests sites, Sentinel-1 time series information improved forest cover predictions in open savanna-like environments with heterogeneous regional features. The presented approach proved to be robust and it displayed the benefit of fusing optical and SAR data at high spatial resolution. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Remote Sensing for Global Forest Monitoring)
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31 pages, 10856 KiB  
Article
Estimation of Changes of Forest Structural Attributes at Three Different Spatial Aggregation Levels in Northern California using Multitemporal LiDAR
by Francisco Mauro, Martin Ritchie, Brian Wing, Bryce Frank, Vicente Monleon, Hailemariam Temesgen and Andrew Hudak
Remote Sens. 2019, 11(8), 923; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11080923 - 16 Apr 2019
Cited by 27 | Viewed by 3594
Abstract
Accurate estimates of growth and structural changes are key for forest management tasks such as determination of optimal rotation times, optimal rotation times, site indices and for identifying areas experiencing difficulties to regenerate. Estimation of structural changes, especially for biomass, is also key [...] Read more.
Accurate estimates of growth and structural changes are key for forest management tasks such as determination of optimal rotation times, optimal rotation times, site indices and for identifying areas experiencing difficulties to regenerate. Estimation of structural changes, especially for biomass, is also key to quantify greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions/sequestration. We compared two different modeling strategies to estimate changes in V, BA and B, at three different spatial aggregation levels using auxiliary information from two light detection and ranging (LiDAR) flights. The study area is Blacks Mountains Experimental Forest, a ponderosa pine dominated forest in Northern California for which two LiDAR acquisitions separated by six years were available. Analyzed strategies consisted of (1) directly modeling the observed changes as a function of the LiDAR auxiliary information ( δ -modeling method) and (2) modeling V, BA and B at two different points in time, including a term to account for the temporal correlation, and then computing the changes as the difference between the predicted values of V, BA and B for time two and time one. We analyzed predictions and measures of uncertainty at three different level of aggregation (i.e., pixels, stands or compartments and the entire study area). Results showed that changes were very weakly correlated with the LiDAR auxiliary information. Both modeling alternatives provided similar results with a better performance of the δ -modeling for the entire study area; however, this method also showed some inconsistencies and seemed to be very prone to extrapolation problems. The y -modeling method, which seems to be less prone to extrapolation problems, allows obtaining more outputs that are flexible and can outperform the δ -modeling method at the stand level. The weak correlation between changes in structural attributes and LiDAR auxiliary information indicates that pixel-level maps have very large uncertainties and estimation of change clearly requires some degree of spatial aggregation; additionally, in similar environments, it might be necessary to increase the time lapse between LiDAR acquisitions to obtain reliable estimates of change. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Remote Sensing for Global Forest Monitoring)
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Review

Jump to: Editorial, Research

18 pages, 331 KiB  
Review
Remote Sensing Support for the Gain-Loss Approach for Greenhouse Gas Inventories
by Ronald E. McRoberts, Erik Næsset, Christophe Sannier, Stephen V. Stehman and Erkki O. Tomppo
Remote Sens. 2020, 12(11), 1891; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12111891 - 11 Jun 2020
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3473
Abstract
For tropical countries that do not have extensive ground sampling programs such as national forest inventories, the gain-loss approach for greenhouse gas inventories is often used. With the gain-loss approach, emissions and removals are estimated as the product of activity data defined as [...] Read more.
For tropical countries that do not have extensive ground sampling programs such as national forest inventories, the gain-loss approach for greenhouse gas inventories is often used. With the gain-loss approach, emissions and removals are estimated as the product of activity data defined as the areas of human-caused emissions and removals and emissions factors defined as the per unit area responses of carbon stocks for those activities. Remotely sensed imagery and remote sensing-based land use and land use change maps have emerged as crucial information sources for facilitating the statistically rigorous estimation of activity data. Similarly, remote sensing-based biomass maps have been used as sources of auxiliary data for enhancing estimates of emissions and removals factors and as sources of biomass data for remote and inaccessible regions. The current status of statistically rigorous methods for combining ground and remotely sensed data that comply with the good practice guidelines for greenhouse gas inventories of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is reviewed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Remote Sensing for Global Forest Monitoring)
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