Forest Inventory and AnalysisUSDA Forest Service PNW Research Station

Remote sensing;

The world beyond aerial photos

Forest Inventory and AnalysisUSDA Forest Service PNW Research Station

In the beginning:Invention

New applications from large to small proliferateSmall: LiDAR for Harvest unit profiles 1990’sLarge: National mapping and estimation tools for carbon

Forest Inventory and AnalysisUSDA Forest Service PNW Research Station

North American Forest Dynamics (NAFD) mapping forest disturbance and cause

Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) accounting system current and historic baseline carbon stocks and trends

Landscape Change Monitoring System (LCMS) land use and land cover change mapping

National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD) – Tree Canopy Cover this 30 meter nationwide (CONUS) map depicts tree canopy

cover in 2011. Image-based Change Estimation (ICE)

land use and land cover change information

National Assessments Monitoring Change, Carbon Assessments, land use, land cover

Forest Inventory and AnalysisUSDA Forest Service PNW Research Station

Small Scale applications

LiDAR individual tree species classification

Brown: Hardwood

Green: Conifer

Forest Inventory and AnalysisUSDA Forest Service PNW Research Station

ValidationConsolidationApplicationsIntegration

What is next?

Forest Inventory and AnalysisUSDA Forest Service PNW Research Station

Validation

USFS (Cohen – PI, Andersen, Healey, Moisen, Schroeder, Woodall, Domke), OSU (Yang), SUNY (Stehman), BU (Kennedy, Woodcock, Zhu), USGS (Vogelmann, Steinwand), UMD (Huang)

Uncertainty Analyses: Compare biomass estimates and precision from different frameworks and input datasets• Design-based with (1) inventory plots alone (current US NGHGI), (2) plots and

LiDAR, and (3) plots, LiDAR, and Landsat• Model-based with (4) plots and Landsat, and (5) plots, LiDAR, and Landsat• (6) Current v. (7) high-precision georeferenced plot locations

Forest Inventory and AnalysisUSDA Forest Service PNW Research Station

FROM: Purpose

Purpose

Consolidation

ProcessData

Product 2

Process

Data

Product 1Product 2

PurposePurpose

TO:

ProcessData

Product 1

Forest Inventory and AnalysisUSDA Forest Service PNW Research Station

Accurate plot locations are critical for matching high-res remote sensing & field data

• In 2-phase sampling designs, error in plot locations directly influences the precision of parameter estimates

Dual-frequency GPS+GLONASS receivers can acquire coordinates with < 1 m error in all boreal forest conditions

Courtesy: Ray Koleser

Acquiring accurate FIA plot locations using survey-grade GPS receiver on Kenai Peninsula

(August, 2008)

Application2014 Tanana Pilot: High-accuracy GPS

Forest Inventory and AnalysisUSDA Forest Service PNW Research Station

Integration

Forest Inventory and AnalysisUSDA Forest Service PNW Research Station