Biomass estimation as a function of vertical forest structure and forest height. Potential and limitations for Radar Remote Sensing.

摘要

One common method to estimate biomass is measuring forest height and applying allometric equations to getrnforest biomass. Conditions like changing forest density or changing forest structure bias the allometric relationsrnor biomass estimation fails completely. Remote sensing systems like SAR or LIDAR allow to measure verticalrnstructure of forests. In this paper it is investigated whether vertical structure is sensitive to biomass. For this purposernvertical biomass profiles were calculated using forest inventory data. Fourier and Legendre decompositionrnwere tested and finally, vertical structure was quantified by decomposing the biomass profiles by means of Legendrernpolynomials. This is a case study based on inventory data from the Traunstein test site, a temperate mixedrnforest, located in the southeast of Germany.