RUSSIAN JOURNAL OF FOREST SCIENCE, 2018, No. 3, P. 163-177


ESTIMATION OF LINKAGES BETWEEN BIOMETRIC INDEXES OF FORESTS AND PATTERN OF CANOPY SPACES ON SUPER-HIGH RESOLUTION SATELLITE IMAGES
V. M. Zhirin, S. V. Knyazeva, S. P. Eidlina
Center for Forest Ecology and Productivity of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Profsoyuznaya st. 84/32 bldg. 14, Moscow, 117997, Russia
E-mail: knsvetl@gmail.com


Received: 27 March 2017
Following a research trend, we remotely examined canopy spaces in forests by thresholding methods of image segmentation in mixed forests of Losiny Ostrov National Park. The methodology resides on analysis of light and shaded plots on super-high resolution satellite images. Pixel count for different brightness thresholds gave enough information to estimate a range of biometric indexes, including normality, average age and height of stands from statistical relationships. Accuracy of estimates was assessed for prescribed deviations. Afterwards it was verified against the norms of estimation of corresponding taxation data. We found a statistical relationship between forest canopy morphology indicators with different brightness thresholds in canopy spaces and stemwood phytomass in forest ecosystems. Super-high resolution images may be considered as a basis of estimation of biometric parameters of stands, morphological indicators of forest canopy and productivity of forest ecosystems.
Keywords: canopy spaces, forest canopy, image thresholding algorithms, super-high resolution satellite images, canopy cover threshold, biometric parameters of stands
Acknowledgments: This study was supported financially by the Russian Foundation of Basic Research (grant no. 17-05-01129).
DOI: 10.7868/S0024114818030014
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