Evaluating SAR-optical sensor fusion for aboveground biomass estimation in a Brazilian tropical forest

The aim of the present study is to evaluate the potential of C-band SAR data from the Sentinel-1/2 instruments and machine learning algorithms for the estimation of forest above ground forest biomass (AGB) in a high-biomass tropical ecosystem. This study was carried out in Jamari National Forest, located in the Brazilian Amazon. The response variable was AGB (Mg/ha) estimated from airborne laser surveys. The following treatments were considered as model predictors: 1) Sentinel-1 Sigma 0 at VV and VH polarizations; 2) (1) plus Sentinel-1 textural metrics; 3) (2) plus Sentinel-2 bands and derived vegetation indices (LAI, RVI, SAVI, NDVI). Our modeling design estimated the relative importance of SAR vs. optical variables in explaining AGB. The modeling was performed with twelve machine-learning algorithms including, neural network and regression tree. The addition of texture and optical data provided a noticeable improvement (3%) over models with SAR backscatter only. The best model performance was achieved with the Random Tree algorithm. Our results demonstrate the potential of freely-available SAR data and machine learning for mapping AGB in tropical ecosystems.