Above Ground Biomass Assessment from Combined Optical and SAR Remote Sensing Data in Surat Thani Province, Thailand

Abstract

Today the carbon content in the atmosphere is predominantly increasing due to greenhouse gas emission and deforestation. Forest plays a key role in absorbing carbon dioxide from atmosphere by process of sequestration through photosynthesis and stores in form of wood biomass which contains nearly 70% - 80% of global carbon. Different forms of biomass in the environment include agricultural products, wood, renewable energy and solid waste. Therefore, it is essential to estimate the biomass content in the environment. In olden days, biomass is estimated by forest inventory techniques which consume lot of time and cost. The spatial distribution of biomass cannot be obtained by traditional inventory forest techniques so the application of remote sensing in biomass assessment is introduced to solve the problem. Overall accuracy of classified map indicates that land features of Surat Thani on map show an accuracy of 91.13% with different land features on ground. Both optical (LANDSAT-8) and synthetic aperture radar (ALOS-2) remote sensing data are used for above ground biomass (AGB) assessment. Biomass that stores in branch and stem of tree is called as above ground biomass. Twenty ground sample plots of 30 m × 30 m utilized for biomass calculation from allometric equations. Optical remote sensing calculates the biomass based on the spectral indices of Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI) and Ratio Vegetation Index (RVI) by regression analysis (R 2 = 0.813). Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is an emerging technique that uses high frequency wavelengths for biomass estimation. HV backscattering of ALOS-2 shows good relation (R 2 = 0.74) with field calculated biomass compared to HH (R 2 = 0.43) utilizes for biomass model generation by linear regression analysis. Combination of both optical spectral indices (SAVI, RVI) and HV (ALOS-2) SAR backscattering increases the plantation biomass accuracy to (R 2 = 0.859) compared to optical (R 2 = 0.788) and SAR (R 2 = 0.742).