Airborne LiDAR Measurements to Estimate Forest Carbon Stock in Peat Swamp Forests

Authors:
Uwe Ballhorn, Juilson Jubanski, Karin Kronseder, Florian Siegert

Book:
Proceedings of the 14th International Peat Congress

Venue:
Stockholm

Keywords:
above-ground-biomass, indonesia, lidar, redd, tropical-peat

Documentfile:
Ballhorn et al 2012: Airborne LiDAR Measurements to Estimate Forest Carbon Stock in Peat Swamp Forests

Summary:

Theme IX. Tropical peatlands

SUMMARY

Airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) represents a potential technique for biomass quantification and monitoring. We estimated forest Above Ground Biomass (AGB) through correlating airborne LiDAR data to forest inventory data within a peat dominated study area in Central Kalimantan (Indonesia). The Centroid Height (CH) of the LiDAR height histograms, using LiDAR point densities as weighting factor, led to the highest correlation (R² = 0.88, n = 52). The results also showed that surveying with a LiDAR point density between 2 and 4 points per square metre (pt/m2) had the best cost-benefit relation. An AGB Landsat based classification resulted in an overestimation of about 61% compared to the LiDAR derived AGB estimates.