Estimating and Mapping Aboveground Biomass of Natural Quercus Aegilops Using WorldView-3 Imagery

Abstract

Biomass estimation is a tool for assessing the amount of carbon stores in trees. An approach is presented to estimate aboveground biomass (AGB) of the scattered individual Quercus aegilops using very high resolution satellite imagery, WorldView-3 (WV3). First, an in-situ allometric model at tree level was developed, and AGB was estimated using the Diameter at Breast Height (DBH). Next, the allometric relationship between Tree Crown Area (TCA) derived from WV3 data and estimated in-situ AGB was investigated and used in the resulting model to estimate AGB (remote sensing derived). As a result, the developed allometric model in-situ produced a correlation of R2 = 0.99, and the developed allometric model remote sensing produced a correlation of R2 = 0.94. Tree AGB estimated from WV3 data was a good technique with a 1.24 bias and a root mean square error (RMSE) of 80.17. This approach can be used to accurately estimate and map AGB of scattered individual trees.