The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Mapping tropical forest structure in southeastern Madagascar using remote sensing and artificial neural networks

Mapping tropical forest structure in southeastern Madagascar using remote sensing and artificial neural networks
Mapping tropical forest structure in southeastern Madagascar using remote sensing and artificial neural networks
Tropical forest condition has important implications for biodiversity, climate change and human needs. Structural features of forests can serve as useful indicators of forest condition and have the potential to be assessed with remotely sensed imagery, which can provide quantitative information on forest ecosystems at high temporal and spatial resolutions. Herein, we investigate the utility of remote sensing for assessing, predicting and mapping two important forest structural features, stem density and basal area, in tropical, littoral forests in southeastern Madagascar. We analysed the relationships of basal area and stem density measurements to the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and radiance measurements in bands 3, 4, 5 and 7 from the Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+). Strong relationships were identified among all of the individual bands and field based measurements of basal area (p<0.01) while there were weak and insignificant relationships among spectral response and stem density measurements. NDVI was not significantly correlated with basal area but was strongly and significantly correlated with stem density (r=?0.69, p<0.01) when using a subset of the data, which represented extreme values. We used an artificial neural network (ANN) to predict basal area from radiance values in bands 3, 4, 5 and 7 and to produce a predictive map of basal area for the entire forest landscape. The ANNs produced strong and significant relationships between predicted and actual measures of basal area using a jackknife method (r=0.79, p<0.01) and when using a larger data set (r=0.82, p<0.01). The map of predicted basal area produced by the ANN was assessed in relation to a pre-existing map of forest condition derived from a semi-quantitative field assessment. The predictive map of basal area provided finer detail on stand structural heterogeneity, captured known climatic influences on forest structure and displayed trends of basal area associated with degree of human accessibility. These findings demonstrate the utility of ANNs for integrating satellite data from the Landsat ETM+ spectral bands 3, 4, 5 and 7 with limited field survey data to assess patterns in basal area at the landscape scale.
remote sensing, forest structure, artificial neural networks, madagascar, basal area
0034-4257
491-507
Ingram, J. Carter
774a18d9-903a-4a83-b967-dd407220129a
Dawson, Terence P.
0c9227ce-1d62-47b5-9571-a8a1864321af
Whittaker, Robert J.
5129fcff-2ef3-436f-bef6-88c520e4aae9
Ingram, J. Carter
774a18d9-903a-4a83-b967-dd407220129a
Dawson, Terence P.
0c9227ce-1d62-47b5-9571-a8a1864321af
Whittaker, Robert J.
5129fcff-2ef3-436f-bef6-88c520e4aae9

Ingram, J. Carter, Dawson, Terence P. and Whittaker, Robert J. (2005) Mapping tropical forest structure in southeastern Madagascar using remote sensing and artificial neural networks. Remote Sensing of Environment, 94 (4), 491-507. (doi:10.1016/j.rse.2004.12.001).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Tropical forest condition has important implications for biodiversity, climate change and human needs. Structural features of forests can serve as useful indicators of forest condition and have the potential to be assessed with remotely sensed imagery, which can provide quantitative information on forest ecosystems at high temporal and spatial resolutions. Herein, we investigate the utility of remote sensing for assessing, predicting and mapping two important forest structural features, stem density and basal area, in tropical, littoral forests in southeastern Madagascar. We analysed the relationships of basal area and stem density measurements to the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and radiance measurements in bands 3, 4, 5 and 7 from the Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+). Strong relationships were identified among all of the individual bands and field based measurements of basal area (p<0.01) while there were weak and insignificant relationships among spectral response and stem density measurements. NDVI was not significantly correlated with basal area but was strongly and significantly correlated with stem density (r=?0.69, p<0.01) when using a subset of the data, which represented extreme values. We used an artificial neural network (ANN) to predict basal area from radiance values in bands 3, 4, 5 and 7 and to produce a predictive map of basal area for the entire forest landscape. The ANNs produced strong and significant relationships between predicted and actual measures of basal area using a jackknife method (r=0.79, p<0.01) and when using a larger data set (r=0.82, p<0.01). The map of predicted basal area produced by the ANN was assessed in relation to a pre-existing map of forest condition derived from a semi-quantitative field assessment. The predictive map of basal area provided finer detail on stand structural heterogeneity, captured known climatic influences on forest structure and displayed trends of basal area associated with degree of human accessibility. These findings demonstrate the utility of ANNs for integrating satellite data from the Landsat ETM+ spectral bands 3, 4, 5 and 7 with limited field survey data to assess patterns in basal area at the landscape scale.

This record has no associated files available for download.

More information

Published date: 28 February 2005
Keywords: remote sensing, forest structure, artificial neural networks, madagascar, basal area

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 58503
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/58503
ISSN: 0034-4257
PURE UUID: cce6419f-776d-414e-a53c-64e33d985113

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 14 Aug 2008
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 11:11

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: J. Carter Ingram
Author: Terence P. Dawson
Author: Robert J. Whittaker

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×