A comparative analysis of pixel-based and object-based approaches for forest above-ground biomass estimation using random forest model

Abstract. Providing an accurate above-ground biomass (AGB) map is of paramount importance for carbon stock and climate change monitoring. The main objective of this study is to compare the performance of pixel-based and object-based approaches for AGB estimation of temperate forests in north-eastern of New York State. Second, the capabilities of optical, SAR, and optical + SAR data were investigated. To achieve the goals, the random forest (RF) regression algorithm was used to model and predict the AGB values. Optical (i.e. Landsat 5TM, Landsat 8 OLI, and Sentinel-2), synthetic aperture radar (SAR) (Sentinel-1 and global phased array type L-band SAR (PALSAR/PALSAR-2)), and their integration have been used to estimate the AGB. It is worth mentioning that the airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) AGB raster has been used as a reference data for training/testing purposes. The results demonstrate that the OBIA approach enhanced the RMSE of AGB estimation about 5.32 Mg/ha, 8.9 Mg/ha, and 5.29 Mg/ha for optical, SAR, and optical + SAR data, respectively. Moreover, optical + SAR data with the RMSE of 42.63 Mg/ha and R2 of 0.72 for pixel-based and RMSE of 37.31 Mg/ha and R2 of 0.77 for object-based approach provided the best results.