Abstract
Tropical countries like Cambodia require information about forest biomass for successful implementation of climate change mitigation mechanism related to Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+). This study investigated the potential of Phased Array-type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar Fine Beam Dual (PALSAR FBD) 50 m mosaic data to estimate Above Ground Biomass (AGB) in Cambodia. AGB was estimated using a bottom-up approach based on field measured biomass and backscattering (σo) properties of PALSAR data. The relationship between the PALSAR σo HV and HH/HV with field measured biomass was strong with R2 = 0.67 and 0.56, respectively. PALSAR estimated AGB show good results in deciduous forests because of less saturation as compared to dense evergreen forests. The validation results showed a high coefficient of determination R2 = 0.61 with RMSE = 21 Mg/ha using values up to 200 Mg/ha biomass. There were some uncertainties because of the uncertainty in the field based measurement and saturation of PALSAR data. AGB map of Cambodian forests could be useful for the implementation of forest management practices for REDD+ assessment and policies implementation at the national level.
Highlights
Forests play an important role in global carbon cycling, as they are potential carbon sinks and sources for atmospheric CO2 [1], [2]
The reason why, so HV polarization produces better correlation than so HH is because of the volume scattering in forest areas enhances the cross-polarization returns with the increase in biomass. so HV is less influenced by soil and vegetation moisture than so HH [64]
Biomass information is useful for calculation of amount of carbon loss due to deforestation activity
Summary
Forests play an important role in global carbon cycling, as they are potential carbon sinks and sources for atmospheric CO2 [1], [2]. Forest conservation is only one of many possible options by which permanent land-use change may be avoided [5]. Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) mechanism avoids emissions of carbon into the atmosphere by conserving existing carbon stocks. REDD+ can promote a range of sustainability goals such as climate change mitigation, biodiversity conservation, sustainable use of forest and forest products, better livelihood for local peoples etc. Forest biomass information is useful for REDD+ carbon accounting and trading carbon credits [9]. Forest biomass information is useful to understand efficiently the global carbon cycle and ecosystem processes, as well as to know how carbon stocks vary in relation to environmental conditions and human land use activities [10]. Most studies have focused on above ground biomass (AGB) because this is relatively large pool and other carbon pools can be calculated with simple equations [11]
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