Estimating the Height and Basal Area at Individual Tree and Plot Levels in Canadian Subarctic Lichen Woodlands Using Stereo WorldView-3 Images
Lichen woodlands (LW) are sparse forests that cover extensive areas in remote subarctic regions where warming due to climate change is fastest. They are difficult to study in situ or with airborne remote sensing due to their remoteness. We have tested a method for measuring individual tree heights a...
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ftmdpi:oai:mdpi.com:/2072-4292/11/3/248/ 2023-08-20T04:10:02+02:00 Estimating the Height and Basal Area at Individual Tree and Plot Levels in Canadian Subarctic Lichen Woodlands Using Stereo WorldView-3 Images Benoît St-Onge Simon Grandin agris 2019-01-26 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11030248 EN eng Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute Forest Remote Sensing https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rs11030248 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Remote Sensing; Volume 11; Issue 3; Pages: 248 high resolution spaceborne photogrammetry taiga black spruce stem density unmanned aerial vehicles Text 2019 ftmdpi https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11030248 2023-07-31T21:59:58Z Lichen woodlands (LW) are sparse forests that cover extensive areas in remote subarctic regions where warming due to climate change is fastest. They are difficult to study in situ or with airborne remote sensing due to their remoteness. We have tested a method for measuring individual tree heights and predicting basal area at tree and plot levels using WorldView-3 stereo images. Manual stereo measurements of tree heights were performed on short trees (2–12 m) of a LW region of Canada with a residual standard error of ≈0.9 m compared to accurate field or UAV height data. The number of detected trees significantly underestimated field counts, especially in peatlands in which the visual contrast between trees and ground cover was low. The heights measured from the WorldView-3 images were used to predict the basal area at individual tree level and summed up at plot level. In the best conditions (high contrast between trees and ground cover), the relationship to field basal area had a R2 of 0.79. Accurate estimates of above ground biomass should therefore also be possible. This method could be used to calibrate an extensive remote sensing approach without in-situ measurements, e.g., by linking precise structural data to ICESAT-2 footprints. Text Subarctic taiga MDPI Open Access Publishing Canada Remote Sensing 11 3 248 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
MDPI Open Access Publishing |
op_collection_id |
ftmdpi |
language |
English |
topic |
high resolution spaceborne photogrammetry taiga black spruce stem density unmanned aerial vehicles |
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high resolution spaceborne photogrammetry taiga black spruce stem density unmanned aerial vehicles Benoît St-Onge Simon Grandin Estimating the Height and Basal Area at Individual Tree and Plot Levels in Canadian Subarctic Lichen Woodlands Using Stereo WorldView-3 Images |
topic_facet |
high resolution spaceborne photogrammetry taiga black spruce stem density unmanned aerial vehicles |
description |
Lichen woodlands (LW) are sparse forests that cover extensive areas in remote subarctic regions where warming due to climate change is fastest. They are difficult to study in situ or with airborne remote sensing due to their remoteness. We have tested a method for measuring individual tree heights and predicting basal area at tree and plot levels using WorldView-3 stereo images. Manual stereo measurements of tree heights were performed on short trees (2–12 m) of a LW region of Canada with a residual standard error of ≈0.9 m compared to accurate field or UAV height data. The number of detected trees significantly underestimated field counts, especially in peatlands in which the visual contrast between trees and ground cover was low. The heights measured from the WorldView-3 images were used to predict the basal area at individual tree level and summed up at plot level. In the best conditions (high contrast between trees and ground cover), the relationship to field basal area had a R2 of 0.79. Accurate estimates of above ground biomass should therefore also be possible. This method could be used to calibrate an extensive remote sensing approach without in-situ measurements, e.g., by linking precise structural data to ICESAT-2 footprints. |
format |
Text |
author |
Benoît St-Onge Simon Grandin |
author_facet |
Benoît St-Onge Simon Grandin |
author_sort |
Benoît St-Onge |
title |
Estimating the Height and Basal Area at Individual Tree and Plot Levels in Canadian Subarctic Lichen Woodlands Using Stereo WorldView-3 Images |
title_short |
Estimating the Height and Basal Area at Individual Tree and Plot Levels in Canadian Subarctic Lichen Woodlands Using Stereo WorldView-3 Images |
title_full |
Estimating the Height and Basal Area at Individual Tree and Plot Levels in Canadian Subarctic Lichen Woodlands Using Stereo WorldView-3 Images |
title_fullStr |
Estimating the Height and Basal Area at Individual Tree and Plot Levels in Canadian Subarctic Lichen Woodlands Using Stereo WorldView-3 Images |
title_full_unstemmed |
Estimating the Height and Basal Area at Individual Tree and Plot Levels in Canadian Subarctic Lichen Woodlands Using Stereo WorldView-3 Images |
title_sort |
estimating the height and basal area at individual tree and plot levels in canadian subarctic lichen woodlands using stereo worldview-3 images |
publisher |
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11030248 |
op_coverage |
agris |
geographic |
Canada |
geographic_facet |
Canada |
genre |
Subarctic taiga |
genre_facet |
Subarctic taiga |
op_source |
Remote Sensing; Volume 11; Issue 3; Pages: 248 |
op_relation |
Forest Remote Sensing https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rs11030248 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11030248 |
container_title |
Remote Sensing |
container_volume |
11 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
248 |
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1774723934602657792 |