Evaluation of the stand biomass estimation method by digitized aerial photographs in an arid area of Western Australia

• Published in: Journal of the Japan society of photogrammetry and remote sensing Vol. 45; no. 3; pp. 12 - 23
• Main Authors: SUGANUMA, Hideki, ABE, Yukuo, TANIGUCHI, Masahiko, YAMADA, Koichi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Japan Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 2006
• ISSN: 0285-5844; 1883-9061
• DOI: 10.4287/jsprs.45.3_12

There are generally two types of difficulties when someone attempts to estimate stand biomass using satellite imagery. One is technical difficulty and the other is the difficulty in obtaining statistically sufficient field samples. To overcome the latter, we examined the photogrammetry of digitized aerial photographs in an arid area of Western Australia. In this area, the stand biomass was calculated from canopy coverage. Therefore, canopy coverage was estimated from digitized aerial photographs by discriminant analysis, and then the stand biomass distribution was obtained. The estimation accuracies of canopy coverage and stand biomass were evaluated by visual interpretation of aerial photographs and by field measurement, respectively. The method using discriminant function showed high estimation precision. Thus, in this area and in similar arid areas, photogrammetry of digitized aerial photographs is considered sufficient to overcome the difficulty in obtaining statistically sufficient samples.