Forest Volume Estimation Method Based on Allometric Growth Model and Multisource Remote Sensing Data

Abstract

The accurate forest volume is crucial for forest management, but rapid, large-scale, and high-accuracy estimation is still challenging. We proposed a method of coupling allometric growth model and multisource data for forest volume estimation (CAMFVe). First, the diameter at breast height (DBH) estimation model is constructed by terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) and airborne laser scanning (ALS) to obtain more accurate measured volume. Second, the spectral attributes of Landsat and structural attributes of ALS are extracted and upscaled onto the 30-m plot scale, and the optimal attributes for volume estimation are selected. Third, the model of CAMFVe is constructed and applied to obtain the volume of study area. Finally, the applicability of CAMFVe is evaluated under four forest growth environments (different canopy closure and slope categories), and the accuracy is compared with multiple linear regression (MLR), random forest (RF), and support vector machine (SVM). The results show the following. First, the DBH estimation model by TLS and ALS improves the DBH calculation accuracy of ALS with a 2.058 cm reduction in RMSE. Second, the mean of canopy height (Hmean) and enhanced vegetation index (EVI) are identified as the optimal structural and spectral attributes, respectively. Third, the model constructed by Hmean and EVI consistently achieves higher accuracy for most forest growth environments, and the addition of spectral attribute improves volume estimation accuracy with a 10.152% reduction in RMSE compared with the Hmean-based model. Fourth, compared with MLR, RF, and SVM, CAMFVe offers higher accuracy, requires fewer parameters, and is simpler and more efficient. Our proposed method, based on allometric growth model and utilizing vegetation index instead of DBH, provides a solution for large-scale and high-accuracy volume estimation by combining spaceborne light detection and ranging and optical satellite images.

Keywords

• Allometric growth model
• forest volume
• tree height
• UAV light detection and ranging (LiDAR)
• vegetation index (VI)