STAND VOLUMES ESTIMATE Eucalyptus spp. PLANTATIONS IN FORESTS USING HYPERSPECTRAL AND TOPOGRAPHIC DATA

The availability of orbital hyperspectral data has brought new perspectives to both academic and corporative sectors solving demands in forestry science. The main objective of this work was to evaluate the potential of Hyperion EO-1 hyperspectral data to quantify the biophysical timber volume in Eucalyptus spp stands and the effect of hill shading in that quantification. For this, the correlations between spectral data and timber volume were performed following the use of Multiple Linear regression models as the descriptors of the relationships established. The relief effect on the Eucalyptus spp. canopy reflectance was taken into account. The Hyperion EO-1 data were converted to BRF surface values, which were considered the basis glare entire work. The study area was located in the municipality of Capao Bonito (the State of Silo Paulo, Brazil) and included Eucalyptus spp. stands managed by the Votorantim Papel e Celulose company (VCP). Spectral samples were collected in different topographic conditions. In the establishment of the relationship with timber volume, the vegetation indices estimated using hyperspectral data resulted in models with higher R2 when considering the topographic illumination effect showing higher applicability potential of this data.