The conservation of Jordan's Mediterranean forest requires the use of remote sensing. Among the most important parameters needed are the crown-cover percentage (C) and above-ground biomass (A). This study aims to: (1) identify the best predictor(s) of C using Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM) bands and the derived transformed normalized difference vegetation index (TNDVI); (2) determine ifC is a good predictor of A, volume (V), Shannon diversity index (S) and basal area (B); and (3) generate maps of all these parameters. A Landsat ETM image, aerial photographs and ground surveys are used to model C using multiple regression. C is then modelled to A, V, S and B using linear regression. The relationship between C and Landsat ETMbands (1 and 7) plus the TNDVI is significantly high (coefficient of determination R2 = 0.8) and is used to produce the C map. The generated C map is used to predict A (R2 = 0.56), V (R2 = 0.58), S (R2 = 0.50) and B (R2 = 0.43). Cross validation for the predicted C map (cross-validation error = 5.3%) and for the predicted forest-parameter maps (cross-validation error = 13.7%-19.9%) shows acceptable error levels. Results indicate that Jordan's east Mediterranean forest parameters can be mapped and monitored for biomass accumulation and carbon dioxide (CO2) flux using Landsat ETM images. © 2011 Taylor & Francis.
CITATION STYLE
Alrababah, M. A., Alhamad, M. N., Bataineh, A. L., Bataineh, M. M., & Suwaileh, A. F. (2011). Estimating east Mediterranean forest parameters using Landsat ETM. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 32(6), 1561–1574. https://doi.org/10.1080/01431160903573235
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