Estimating aboveground biomass using Landsat TM imagery: A case study of Anatolian Crimean pine forests in Turkey

Abstract

Forests play an important role in carbon circulation, and the productivity of forest ecosystems can be evaluated by evaluating its biomass. Evaluation of biomass aids the determination and understanding of changes in forest ecosystems. Because of the limitations of ground measurements of biomass, in recent times, satellite images have been broadly applied to estimate aboveground biomass (AGB). The objective of this study is to examine the relationships between AGB and individual band reflectance values and ten Vegetation Indices (VIs) obtained from a Lands at TM satellite image for a Anatolian pine forests in northwestern Turkey. Multiple regression analysis is utilized to predict the AGB. The AGB model using TM 1 and TM 2 had an adjusted R-2 of 0.465. Another AGB model using Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) and Normalized Difference 57 (ND57) had an adjusted R-2 of 0.606. Our results reveal that VIs present better estimation of AGB in Anatolian pine forests as compared to individual band reflectance values.