Speaker
Description
Biomass can be mapped and monitored with interferometric SAR (synthetic aperture radar), where the main clue is based on having a vertical dimension of the forest canopy. While biomass mapping with InSAR requires access to a high-quality DTM, biomass changes can be estimated based on height changes over time. The idea is to demonstrate the ability to derive forest height changes and AGB changes for the period 2000 – 2012 from the combination of the TanDEM-X WorldDEM and the SRTM DEMs, including providing estimates of the accuracy of these change estimates, and an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of this approach as a supplement to other technologies. The study areas have sizes of 100 000 km2 or more, and are located in Tanzania, Ethiopia, Uganda, Colombia and Russia, and as well a data set in Norway. The data sets covering these areas are provided from DLR and Airbus Defense and Space, and they are currently available. We will (i) derive height change data. There are two main issues in this, i.e. a correction for striping errors and height biases in the SRTM data, and correction for differences in canopy penetration between X- and C-band. This will provide the geography of height changes within each study area. Secondly, we will (ii), fit models of AGB as a function of interferometric SAR (InSAR) height based on available field inventory plots, and use these models to convert height changes to AGB changes. This work is meant to serve as a large-scale demonstrator, which if successful, can be up-scaled to a near-global coverage as a later step.
