Monthly Deforestation Monitoring with Sentinel-1 Multi-temporal Signatures and InSAR Coherences

Abstract

Sentinel-1 interferometric time-series allow for the accurate retrieval of the target’s temporal decorrelation and, therefore, the inversion of land cover information and its temporal monitoring. This paper describes the development of an observation scenario for monitoring monthly deforestation over the Amazon rainforest, which relies on the use of radar for overcoming the physical limitations of optical sensors caused by the presence of cloud coverage. Specifically, we implement a classification scheme that exploits multi-temporal SAR features, such as backscatter, spatial textures, and interferometric parameters, to map forested areas. Distinct forest maps are generated for consecutive months and further processed to detect deforestation phenomena and map clear-cuts evolution. The obtained results are validated by selecting cloud-free Sentinel-2 multispectral data on the selected area and acquired during the same observation time.

Keywords

• forest mapping
• deforestation
• change detection
• synthetic aperture radar
• interferometry
• interferometric coherence
• temporal decorrelation
• sentinel-1
• sentinel-2