Characterizing secondary forest stages in different tropical rain forest environments under the recent REDD+ protocols: an attempt with multiple sources of remote sensing data

Abstract

Forest inventory information has been a very important topic under the recent United Nations (UN) endorsed "Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation" (REDD+) protocols. In other words, frequently forest monitoring is needed, not only for planning the future forest management practices but also to monitor forested areas under the recent REDD+ policy. However, the traditional methods of investigating such parameters involve labor-intensive forest inventories, the incorporation of complex sampling designs, and supplementary work that are not feasible both in terms of expenses and time. In this regard, the potential of different sources of remotely sensed data and techniques should be considered with more intenseness in different tropical rain forest environments. This post-doctoral investigation intends to discriminate at selected test sites different successional forest stages and to retrieve some of their biophysical parameter variables which show direct influence on the spatial and temporal patterns of carbon stores and fluxes [e.g. (1) plant/leaf area index (PAI/LAI); (2) tree height; (3) tree coverage and gap fraction; (4) stratified above ground biomass (AGB); and (5) 3-D Canopy structure]. Besides the Tapajos National Forest (Eastern Amazon, Brazil) and Sabangau National Park (Central Kalimantan, Indonesia) other study areas may be selected according to the historical availability of remotely sensed data at both orbital and airborne levels. Work at these sites will allow to investigate at what extent may optical (i.e. multiangular multispectral and hyperspectral data) and microwave data (i.e. multifrequency polarimetric and interferometric data) measurements be used to improve: (a) overall classification accuracy of secondary forest and their spatial distribution; and (b) secondary forest biophysical parameter estimates?