Modeling forest biomass using Very-High-Resolution data - Combining textural, spectral and photogrammetric predictors derived from spaceborne stereo images

Abstract

We used spectral, textural and photogrammetric information from very-high resolution (VHR) stereo satellite data (Pleiades and WorldView-2) to estimate forest biomass across two test sites located in Chile and Germany. We compared Random Forest model performances of different predictor sets (spectral, textural, and photogrammetric), forest inventory designs and filter sizes (texture information). Best model performances were obtained with photogrammetric combined with either textural or spectral information and smaller, but more field plots. Stereo-VHR images showed a great potential for canopy height model (CHM) generation and could be an adequate alternative to LiDAR and InSAR techniques.