Article (Scientific journals)
Aboveground biomass density models for NASA's Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) lidar mission
Duncanson, Laura; Kellner, James R.; Armston, John et al.
2022In Remote Sensing of Environment, 270, p. 112845
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Keywords :
Aboveground biomass; Forest; GEDI; LiDAR; Modeling; Waveform; Biomass density; Ecosystem dynamics; Geographics; Global ecosystem dynamic investigation; Modeling performance; Waveforms; Soil Science; Geology; Computers in Earth Sciences
Abstract :
[en] NASA's Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) is collecting spaceborne full waveform lidar data with a primary science goal of producing accurate estimates of forest aboveground biomass density (AGBD). This paper presents the development of the models used to create GEDI's footprint-level (~25 m) AGBD (GEDI04_A) product, including a description of the datasets used and the procedure for final model selection. The data used to fit our models are from a compilation of globally distributed spatially and temporally coincident field and airborne lidar datasets, whereby we simulated GEDI-like waveforms from airborne lidar to build a calibration database. We used this database to expand the geographic extent of past waveform lidar studies, and divided the globe into four broad strata by Plant Functional Type (PFT) and six geographic regions. GEDI's waveform-to-biomass models take the form of parametric Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) models with simulated Relative Height (RH) metrics as predictor variables. From an exhaustive set of candidate models, we selected the best input predictor variables, and data transformations for each geographic stratum in the GEDI domain to produce a set of comprehensive predictive footprint-level models. We found that model selection frequently favored combinations of RH metrics at the 98th, 90th, 50th, and 10th height above ground-level percentiles (RH98, RH90, RH50, and RH10, respectively), but that inclusion of lower RH metrics (e.g. RH10) did not markedly improve model performance. Second, forced inclusion of RH98 in all models was important and did not degrade model performance, and the best performing models were parsimonious, typically having only 1-3 predictors. Third, stratification by geographic domain (PFT, geographic region) improved model performance in comparison to global models without stratification. Fourth, for the vast majority of strata, the best performing models were fit using square root transformation of field AGBD and/or height metrics. There was considerable variability in model performance across geographic strata, and areas with sparse training data and/or high AGBD values had the poorest performance. These models are used to produce global predictions of AGBD, but will be improved in the future as more and better training data become available.
Disciplines :
Environmental sciences & ecology
Author, co-author :
Duncanson, Laura;  University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, United States
Kellner, James R.;  Brown University, Providence, United States
Armston, John;  University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, United States
Dubayah, Ralph;  University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, United States
Minor, David M.;  University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, United States
Hancock, Steven;  University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Healey, Sean P.;  USDA Forest Service, Ogden, United States
Patterson, Paul L.;  USDA Forest Service, Ogden, United States
Saarela, Svetlana;  Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå, Sweden ; Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås, Norway
Marselis, Suzanne;  University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, United States
Silva, Carlos E.;  University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, United States
Bruening, Jamis;  University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, United States
Goetz, Scott J.;  Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, United States
Tang, Hao;  University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, United States ; Department of Geography, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Hofton, Michelle;  University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, United States
Blair, Bryan;  NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, United States
Luthcke, Scott;  NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, United States
Fatoyinbo, Lola;  NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, United States
Abernethy, Katharine;  University of Stirling, Stirling, United Kingdom ; Institut de Recherche en Ecologie Tropicale, CENAREST, Libreville, Gabon
Alonso, Alfonso;  Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, Washington, United States
Andersen, Hans-Erik;  USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, University of Washington, Seattle, United States
Aplin, Paul;  Edge Hill University, Lancashire, United Kingdom
Baker, Timothy R.;  University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom
Barbier, Nicolas;  AMAP, Univ Montpellier, IRD, CNRS, INRAE, CIRAD, Montpellier cedex 5, France
Bastin, Jean-François  ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > TERRA Research Centre
Biber, Peter;  Technical University Munich, Munich, Germany
Boeckx, Pascal;  Ghent University, Gent, Belgium
Bogaert, Jan  ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département GxABT > Biodiversité et Paysage
Boschetti, Luigi;  University of Idaho, Moscow, United States
Boucher, Peter Brehm;  Harvard University, United States
Boyd, Doreen S.;  University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, United Kingdom
Burslem, David F.R.P.;  University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland, United Kingdom
Calvo-Rodriguez, Sofia;  University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
Chave, Jérôme;  Laboratoire Évolution et Diversité Biologique (EDB), UMR 5174 (CNRS/IRD/UPS), Toulouse Cedex 9, France ; Université Toulouse, France
Chazdon, Robin L.;  University of Connecticut, Storrs, United States ; University of the Sunshine Coast, Sippy Downs, Australia
Clark, David B.;  University of Missouri-St. Louis, One University Boulevard, St. Louis, United States
Clark, Deborah A.;  University of Missouri-St. Louis, One University Boulevard, St. Louis, United States
Cohen, Warren B.;  USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Corvallis, United States
Coomes, David A.;  University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Corona, Piermaria;  Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, Arezzo, Italy ; University of Tuscia, via San Camillo de Lellis, Viterbo, Italy
Cushman, K.C.;  Brown University, Providence, United States ; Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Ancón, Panama
Cutler, Mark E.J.;  University of Dundee, Dundee, United Kingdom
Dalling, James W.;  Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Ancón, Panama ; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, United States
Dalponte, Michele;  Research and Innovation Centre, Fondazione Edmund Mach, San Michele all'Adige (TN), Italy
Dash, Jonathan;  Scion New Zealand Forest Research Institute, New Zealand
de-Miguel, Sergio;  University of Lleida, Lleida, Spain ; Joint Research Unit CTFC - AGROTECNIO - CERCA, Solsona, Spain
Deng, Songqiu;  Shinshu University, Nagano, Japan
Ellis, Peter Woods;  The Nature Conservancy, Arlington, United States
Erasmus, Barend;  University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa ; University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
Fekety, Patrick A.;  Colorado State University, Fort Collins, United States
Fernandez-Landa, Alfredo;  Agresta Sociedad Cooperativa, Soria, Spain
Ferraz, Antonio;  Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States ; University of California, Los Angeles, United States
Fischer, Rico;  Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Leipzig, Germany
Fisher, Adrian G.;  University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia ; University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
García-Abril, Antonio;  Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), Madrid, Spain
Gobakken, Terje;  Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås, Norway
Hacker, Jorg M.;  Airborne Research Australia, Australia ; Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia
Heurich, Marco;  Bavarian Forest National Park, Grafenau, Germany ; University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany ; Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, Koppang, Norway
Hill, Ross A.;  Bournemouth University, Dorset, United Kingdom
Hopkinson, Chris;  University of Lethbridge, 4401 University Drive, Lethbridge, Canada
Huang, Huabing;  School of Geospatial Engineering and Science, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China
Hubbell, Stephen P.;  Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Ancón, Panama ; University of California, Los Angeles, United States
Hudak, Andrew T.;  USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Moscow, United States
Huth, Andreas;  Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Leipzig, Germany ; University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany ; German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Leipzig, Germany
Imbach, Benedikt;  Aeroscout, Switzerland
Jeffery, Kathryn J.;  University of Stirling, Stirling, United Kingdom
Katoh, Masato;  Shinshu University, Nagano, Japan
Kearsley, Elizabeth;  Ghent University, Gent, Belgium
Kenfack, David;  Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Ancón, Panama
Kljun, Natascha;  Lund University, Centre for Environmental and Climate Science, Lund, Sweden
Knapp, Nikolai;  Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Leipzig, Germany ; Thünen Institute of Forest Ecosystems, Eberswalde, Germany
Král, Kamil;  The Silva Tarouca Research Institute, Brno, Czech Republic
Krůček, Martin;  The Silva Tarouca Research Institute, Brno, Czech Republic
Labrière, Nicolas;  Laboratoire Évolution et Diversité Biologique (EDB), UMR 5174 (CNRS/IRD/UPS), Toulouse Cedex 9, France
Lewis, Simon L.;  University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom ; University College London, London, United Kingdom
Longo, Marcos;  Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States ; Embrapa Agricultural Informatics, Campinas, Brazil
Lucas, Richard M.;  Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, United Kingdom
Main, Russell;  University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa ; Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Pretoria, South Africa
Manzanera, Jose A.;  Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Ciudad Universitaria, Madrid, Spain
Martínez, Rodolfo Vásquez;  Jardín Botánico de Missouri, Peru
Mathieu, Renaud;  University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa ; International Rice Research Institute, Los Baños, Philippines
Memiaghe, Herve;  Laboratoire Évolution et Diversité Biologique (EDB), UMR 5174 (CNRS/IRD/UPS), Toulouse Cedex 9, France ; University of Oregon, Eugene, United States
Meyer, Victoria;  Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States ; Terraformation, Kamuela, United States
Mendoza, Abel Monteagudo;  Jardín Botánico de Missouri, Peru ; Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco, Cusco, Peru
Monerris, Alessandra;  University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia
Montesano, Paul;  NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, United States ; Science Systems and Applications, Inc. (SSAI), Lanham, United States
Morsdorf, Felix;  Department of Geography, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
Næsset, Erik;  Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås, Norway
Naidoo, Laven;  Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Pretoria, South Africa
Nilus, Reuben;  Sabah Forestry Department, Sandakan, Malaysia
O'Brien, Michael;  Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Móstoles, Spain
Orwig, David A.;  Harvard University, Petersham, United States
Papathanassiou, Konstantinos;  DLR, Bonn, Germany
Parker, Geoffrey;  Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, United States
Philipson, Christopher;  ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland ; Permian Global, London
Phillips, Oliver L.;  University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom
Pisek, Jan;  University of Tartu, Tartu Observatory, Toravere, Estonia
Poulsen, John R.;  Duke University, United States
Pretzsch, Hans;  Technical University Munich, Munich, Germany
Rüdiger, Christoph;  Monash University, Department of Civil Engineering, 23 College Walk, Clayton, Australia ; Bureau of Meteorology, Docklands, Australia
Saatchi, Sassan;  Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States
Sanchez-Azofeifa, Arturo;  University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
Sanchez-Lopez, Nuria;  University of Idaho, Moscow, United States
Scholes, Robert;  University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
Silva, Carlos A.;  University of Florida, Gainesville, United States
Simard, Marc;  Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States
Skidmore, Andrew;  University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands
Stereńczak, Krzysztof;  Forest Research Institute, Raszyn, Poland
Tanase, Mihai;  University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia
Torresan, Chiara;  Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, Arezzo, Italy ; Institute of BioEconomy - National Research Council of Italy, San Michele all'Adige, Italy
Valbuena, Ruben;  Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå, Sweden ; Bangor University, Bangor, United Kingdom
Verbeeck, Hans;  Ghent University, Gent, Belgium
Vrska, Tomas;  The Silva Tarouca Research Institute, Brno, Czech Republic
Wessels, Konrad;  George Mason University, Fairfax, United States
White, Joanne C.;  Canadian Forest Service, Natural Resources Canada, Victoria, Canada
White, Lee J.T.;  University of Stirling, Stirling, United Kingdom ; Ministry of Forests, Sea, the Environment and Climate Change, Boulevard Triomphal Omar BONGO, Libreville, Gabon
Zahabu, Eliakimu;  The Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania
Zgraggen, Carlo;  Aeroscout, Switzerland
More authors (108 more) Less
Language :
English
Title :
Aboveground biomass density models for NASA's Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) lidar mission
Publication date :
March 2022
Journal title :
Remote Sensing of Environment
ISSN :
0034-4257
eISSN :
1879-0704
Publisher :
Elsevier Inc.
Volume :
270
Pages :
112845
Peer reviewed :
Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi
Funders :
U.S. Department of State
Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária
United States Agency for International Development
NSF - National Science Foundation [US-VA] [US-VA]
Battelle
U.S. Forest Service
University of Maryland
NASA
ARC - Australian Research Council [AU]
Funding text :
Armston, Kellner, Hancock, and Dubayah were supported by NASA Contract #NNL 15AA03C to the University of Maryland for the development and execution of the GEDI mission. Duncanson and Minor were supported by a NASA GEDI Science Team Grant NNH20ZDA001N and a NASA Post Doctoral Program fellowship. Saarela was supported through NASA Carbon Monitoring System Grant 80HQTR18T0016 , and Healey and Patterson were funded by the GEDI mission through Interagency Agreement RPO201523 . We thank the NASA Terrestrial Ecology program for continued support of the GEDI mission, and the University of Maryland for providing independent financial support of the GEDI mission. We also thank NASA for contributing to several lidar data collections used in this study, including from the NASA Carbon Monitoring System (Grant number NNH13AW621 , to PI Cohen at the USFS Service). We also gratefully acknowledge the collection and provision of field and airborne data from a wide variety of other sources, including by the Sustainable Landscapes Brazil project supported by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA) , the US Forest Service, the National Science Foundation ( DEB 0939907 ), Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, USAID, and the US Department of State, among others. Additional data were acquired from the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN), an Australian Government NCRIS-enabled research infrastructure project, for provision of data used in this analysis, and from the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), a program sponsored by the National Science Foundation and operated under cooperative agreement by Battelle. We also thank the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Discovery Grant Program (PI Sanchez-Azofeifa). We also thank the Spanish institutions and programs Instituto Geográfico Nacional, Organismo Autónomo de Parques Nacionales and Inventario Forestal Nacional for supporting this science with open data. The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) project "National Woody Vegetation Monitoring System for Ecosystem and Value-added Services" contributed to the collection of South African ALS and field data. We also thank the Sabie Sand Wildtuin, South African National Parks (SANPARKS), the Wits Rural Knowledge Hub and the Bushbuckridge Municipality in South Africa, for support in the South African field data collection. Additional Australian data were collected as part of the SMAPEx project funded by an Australian Research Council Discovery Project ( DP0984586 ). We thank Shell Gabon and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute for funding the Rabi plot in Gabon, which is contribution No. 204 of the Gabon Biodiversity Program. We also acknowledge funding in French Guiana from CNES and "Investissement d'Avenir" grants managed by Agence Nationale de la Recherche (CEBA, ref. ANR-10-LABX-25-01). We thank the Project LIFE+ ForBioSensing PL “Comprehensive monitoring of stand dynamics in Białowieża Forest supported with remote sensing techniques" co-funded by Life Plus (contract number LIFE13 ENV/PL/000048) and Poland’s National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management (contract number 485/2014/WN10/OP-NM-LF/D) for funding the collection of the Polish data, and Rafał Sadkowski for helping with data preparation from the ForBioSensing project. We also thank The Silva Tarouca Research Institute (Czech Republic) for collecting and providing field reference data under an INTER-ACTION project ( LTAUSA18200 ). We also thank the former NERC Airborne Research Facility for their support with airborne data collection, and funding for airborne Lidar data provided by the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry (DAFF). We also thank the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), although the views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of Norad. We also acknowledge DfID and UK Natural Environment Research Council ( NE/P004806/1 ) for collection of field data. The Tanzanian field work for this study was carried out as part of the project “Enhancing the measuring, reporting and verification (MRV) of forests in Tanzania through the application of advanced remote sensing techniques”, funded by the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Tanzania as part of the Norwegian International Climate and Forest Initiative. Finally, data from RAINFOR plots were supported by the Moore Foundation , and SERNANP (Peru) granted research permissions.Armston, Kellner, Hancock, and Dubayah were supported by NASA Contract #NNL 15AA03C to the University of Maryland for the development and execution of the GEDI mission. Duncanson and Minor were supported by a NASA GEDI Science Team Grant NNH20ZDA001N and a NASA Post Doctoral Program fellowship. Saarela was supported through NASA Carbon Monitoring System Grant 80HQTR18T0016, and Healey and Patterson were funded by the GEDI mission through Interagency Agreement RPO201523. We thank the NASA Terrestrial Ecology program for continued support of the GEDI mission, and the University of Maryland for providing independent financial support of the GEDI mission. We also thank NASA for contributing to several lidar data collections used in this study, including from the NASA Carbon Monitoring System (Grant number NNH13AW621, to PI Cohen at the USFS Service). We also gratefully acknowledge the collection and provision of field and airborne data from a wide variety of other sources, including by the Sustainable Landscapes Brazil project supported by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA), the US Forest Service, the National Science Foundation (DEB 0939907), Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, USAID, and the US Department of State, among others. Additional data were acquired from the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN), an Australian Government NCRIS-enabled research infrastructure project, for provision of data used in this analysis, and from the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), a program sponsored by the National Science Foundation and operated under cooperative agreement by Battelle. We also thank the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Discovery Grant Program (PI Sanchez-Azofeifa). We also thank the Spanish institutions and programs Instituto Geogr?fico Nacional, Organismo Aut?nomo de Parques Nacionales and Inventario Forestal Nacional for supporting this science with open data. The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) project ?National Woody Vegetation Monitoring System for Ecosystem and Value-added Services? contributed to the collection of South African ALS and field data. We also thank the Sabie Sand Wildtuin, South African National Parks (SANPARKS), the Wits Rural Knowledge Hub and the Bushbuckridge Municipality in South Africa, for support in the South African field data collection. Additional Australian data were collected as part of the SMAPEx project funded by an Australian Research Council Discovery Project (DP0984586). We thank Shell Gabon and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute for funding the Rabi plot in Gabon, which is contribution No. 204 of the Gabon Biodiversity Program. We also acknowledge funding in French Guiana from CNES and ?Investissement d'Avenir? grants managed by Agence Nationale de la Recherche (CEBA, ref. ANR-10-LABX-25-01). We thank the Project LIFE+ ForBioSensing PL ?Comprehensive monitoring of stand dynamics in Bia?owie?a Forest supported with remote sensing techniques" co-funded by Life Plus (contract number LIFE13 ENV/PL/000048) and Poland's National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management (contract number 485/2014/WN10/OP-NM-LF/D) for funding the collection of the Polish data, and Rafa? Sadkowski for helping with data preparation from the ForBioSensing project. We also thank The Silva Tarouca Research Institute (Czech Republic) for collecting and providing field reference data under an INTER-ACTION project (LTAUSA18200). We also thank the former NERC Airborne Research Facility for their support with airborne data collection, and funding for airborne Lidar data provided by the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry (DAFF). We also thank the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), although the views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of Norad. We also acknowledge DfID and UK Natural Environment Research Council (NE/P004806/1) for collection of field data. The Tanzanian field work for this study was carried out as part of the project ?Enhancing the measuring, reporting and verification (MRV) of forests in Tanzania through the application of advanced remote sensing techniques?, funded by the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Tanzania as part of the Norwegian International Climate and Forest Initiative. Finally, data from RAINFOR plots were supported by the Moore Foundation, and SERNANP (Peru) granted research permissions.
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