Results

ERS-1/2 Tandem Coherence Map

The creation of large-area forest stem volume maps of Northeast (~1,5 Million km²) and Southeast China (~3 Million km²), based on ERS-1/2 tandem coherence data, was the aim of the Forest DRAGON 1 project (Fig. 1). The accuracy assessment of the map products is one of the objectives of the ongoing Forest DRAGON 2 project. A reasonable agreement above 70% between the forest stem volume map and the land cover datasets in terms of forest/ nonforest could be achieved for both, Northeast and Southeast China. Forest stem volume inventory data including >1100 point measurements was available for a small test site in Northeast China. An overall accuracy of 76% in terms of forest stem volume highlights the high performance of the stem volume retrieval algorithm.


Fig. 1: ERS-1/2 Tandem Coherence Stem Volume Map 1995/98