Remote Sensing of Above-Ground Biomass

Abstract

Accurate measurement and mapping of biomass is a critical component of carbon stock quantification, climate change impact assessment, suitability and location of bio-energy processing plants, assessing fuel for forest fires, and assessing merchandisable timber. While above-ground biomass includes both live and dead plant material, most of the recent research effort on biomass estimation has focussed on the 'live' component (live trees) due to the prominence of this component. Accurate estimates of biomass is a prerequisite for better understanding of the impacts of deforestation and environmental degradation on climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) [1] has listed five terrestrial ecosystem carbon pools involving biomass: above-ground biomass, below-ground biomass, litter, woody debris and soil organic matter. Of these five, above-ground biomass is the most visible, dominant, dynamic and important pool of the terrestrial ecosystem, constituting around 30% of the total terrestrial ecosystem carbon pool. Above-ground biomass estimation, and especially forest biomass, has received considerable attention over the last few decades because of increased awareness of climate warming and the role forest biomass plays in carbon sequestration and release of greenhouse gases due to deforestation. Above-ground biomass estimates are the central basis for carbon inventories and most international negotiations in carbon trading schemes. Carbon trading markets require long-term information on carbon stocks, particularly on the above-ground 'live' biomass component as this is the most dynamic, changing and manipulable component of all the biomass pools. This is the 'merchantable' component of biomass.