Enhancing Hyrcanian Forest Height and Aboveground Biomass Predictions: A Synergistic Use of TanDEM-X InSAR Coherence, Sentinel-1, and Sentinel-2 Data

oleh: Ghasem Ronoud, Ali A. Darvishsefat, Maryam Poorazimy, Erkki Tomppo, Oleg Antropov, Jaan Praks

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: IEEE 2024-01-01

Deskripsi

Forest height (FH) is an important driver for aboveground biomass (AGB) that can be obtained using interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR). However, the limited access to the quad-polarimetric data or high-accuracy terrain model makes FH retrieval a challenging task. This study aimed to retrieve FH and further predict AGB by combining TanDEM-X InSAR coherence, Sentinel-1 (S-1), and Sentinel-2 (S-2) data. A total of 125 sample plots with a size of 900 m<sup>2</sup> were established in a broadleaved forest of Kheyroud, Iran. The linear and sinc models obtained by simplification of the random volume over ground model were used for deriving FH<sub>Lin</sub> and FH<sub>Sinc</sub>. Further investigation was conducted when S-1 and S-2 features including backscatters and multispectral information were added to FH predictions. Using the above-mentioned datasets and FH as an additional predictor, AGB was also predicted. <italic>K</italic>-nearest neighbor (<italic>k</italic>-NN), random forest (RF), and support vector regression (SVR) were employed for prediction. Lorey&#x0027;s mean height and AGB at sample plots were used in the accuracy assessment. Using the SVR method and synergy of FH<sub>Sinc</sub>, S-1, and S-2 features, the FH prediction was improved (FH<sub>imp</sub>) with RMSE of 3.18 m and <italic>R</italic><sup>2</sup> &#x003D; 0.59. The AGB prediction with RF and the combination of S-1 and S-2 features resulted in RMSE &#x003D; 62.88 Mg&#x00B7;ha<sup>-1</sup> (19.77&#x0025;) that was improved to RMSE &#x003D; 51.27 Mg&#x00B7;ha<sup>-1</sup> (16.12&#x0025;) when FH<sub>imp</sub> included. This study highlighted the capability of TanDEM-X InSAR coherence with certain geometry for FH prediction. Also, the importance of FH in AGB predictions can stimulate further attempts aiming at higher spatiotemporal accuracies.