Aboveground Biomass Estimation in an Upland Tropical Evergreen Forest Environment from Landsat 7 ETM+

Abstract

The study area is an evergreen forest in Phu Hin Rong Kla National Park, Thailand.Tropical evergreen forests are important as they possess the highest biomass amongst tropical forests. Remote sensing has been used in many studies to estimate the volume of aboveground biomass.  The gap filled Landsat 7 ETM+ data and the forest observed parameters have been analyzed to find out the quantity of aboveground biomass and carbon sequestration. The forest parameters were measured in 30 randomly selected sample plots measuring 30 m x 30 m. The measurements were then used for computing the aboveground biomass using two allometric equations (TM51 and ND71). The analysis showed the best model for aboveground biomass estimation was a combination of TM51 and ND71 (R² = 0.658) and the total of aboveground biomass and carbon sequestration were 112,062,010 ton and 5,603,100 ton carbon respectively. The application of the study would be useful for understanding the terrestrial carbon dynamics and global climate change.