The Importance of Consistent Global Forest Aboveground Biomass Product Validation

Abstract

Several upcoming satellite missions have core science requirements to produce data for accurate forest aboveground biomass mapping. Largely because of these mission datasets, the number of available biomass products is expected to greatly increase over the coming decade. Despite the recognized importance of biomass mapping for a wide range of science, policy and management applications, there remains no community accepted standard for satellite-based biomass map validation. The Committee on Earth Observing Satellites (CEOS) is developing a protocol to fill this need in advance of the next generation of biomass-relevant satellites, and this paper presents a review of biomass validation practices from a CEOS perspective. We outline the wide range of anticipated user requirements for product accuracy assessment and provide recommendations for the validation of biomass products. These recommendations include the collection of new, high-quality in situ data and the use of airborne lidar biomass maps as tools toward transparent multi-resolution validation. Adoption of community-vetted validation standards and practices will facilitate the uptake of the next generation of biomass products.

Estimation of Forest Growing Stock Volume with UAV Laser Scanning Data: Can It Be Done without Field Data?

“…Maps and estimates of forest V and its changes are central to understand the carbon and water cycles, for assessing the climate change mitigation potential of forests and to quantify ecosystem services [1]. Several earth observation missions, such as Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI), NASA-ISRO SAR Mission (NISAR), and BIOMASS, aim specifically at mapping forest AGB and will improve our ability to consistently map and estimate forest resources across the globe [2,3]. Still, all operational applications of remote sensing techniques for forest inventory require field observations for calibration of models and their validation [4].…”

Classifications of Forest Change by Using Bitemporal Airborne Laser Scanner Data

“…This has greatly facilitated the use of remotely sensed data for forest monitoring across various spatial and temporal scales. At global and national levels, coarse resolution optical satellite imagery provides useful information for estimating forest cover [11,12] and biomass [13,14]. At the level of forest properties and stands, high-resolution three-dimensional data have proven particularly useful for forest inventory applications [15].…”

Time for a Plant Structural Economics Spectrum

“…Therefore, structural metrics of a globally spread large number of trees needs to be analyzed in analogy to the global efforts that have been done to construct the LES. To achieve such an ambition, a community effort will be needed to standardize TLS data collection protocols [in line with other current similar efforts, e.g., CEOS (Duncanson et al, 2019)], and establish a repository for reconstructed trees with associated metadata to ensure reproducibility. Challenges remain to accurately extract individual trees from scans of 3D forest point clouds and reconstruct tree architecture.…”