Abstract
Mapping spatial distributions of tropical peatlands is important for properly estimating carbon emissions and for providing information that aids in the sustainable management of tropical peatlands, particularly in Indonesia. This study evaluated the performance of phased array type L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) (PALSAR) dual-polarization and fully polarimetric data for tropical peatlands classification. The study area was in Siak River Transect, Riau Province, Indonesia, a rapidly developing region, where the peatland has been intensively converted mostly into oil palm plantations over the last two decades. Thus, polarimetric features derived after polarimetric decompositions, backscatter coefficients measurements, and the radar vegetation index were evaluated to classify tropical peatlands using the decision tree classifier. Overall, polarimetric features generated by the combination of dual-polarization and fully polarimetric data yielded an overall accuracy (OA) of 69% and a kappa coefficient (K) of 0.57. The integration of an additional feature, “distance to river,” to the algorithm increased the OA to 76% and K to 0.66. These results indicated that the methodology in this study might serve as an efficient tool in tropical peatlands classification, especially when involving the use of L-band SAR dual-polarization and fully polarimetric data.
Highlights
In recent years, there has been considerable interest in the potential of tropical peatlands as carbon storage, as well as the magnitude of their carbon emissions and their important role in climate change processes
The distance factor (DF) derived by the fully polarimetric data tends to have a higher value than those derived by the dual-polarization data, for class pairs 1 to 4
The results of tropical peatlands classification derived by the dual-polarization data generated the biggest area identified as having peatland, whereas those derived by the combination of dual-polarization data, fully polarimetric data, and the additional feature “distance to river” produced the smallest area identified as having peatland
Summary
There has been considerable interest in the potential of tropical peatlands as carbon storage, as well as the magnitude of their carbon emissions and their important role in climate change processes These concerns should be responded to via an accurate inventory of tropical peatlands to obtain a better understanding of tropical peatlands management.[1] The accurate inventory of tropical peatlands, such as in mapping spatial distributions of tropical peatlands, is important for properly estimating carbon emissions, for appropriately evaluating the effect of the land use/cover change due to rapid economic development, and for providing information that aids in the sustainable management of tropical peatlands, in Indonesia.[2,3] tropical peatlands cover relatively large areas and are primarily located in remote areas that are difficult to access.
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