Modelling forest volume with small area estimation of forest inventory using GEDI footprints as auxiliary information

The French National Forest Inventory provides detailed forest information up to large national and regional scales. Forest inventory for small areas of interest within a large population is equally important for decision making, such as for local forest planning and management purposes. However, sampling these small areas with sufficient ground plots is often not cost efficient. In response, small area estimation has gained increasing popularity in forest inventory. It consists of a set of techniques that enables predictions of forest attributes of subpopulation with the help of auxiliary information that compensates for the small field samples.Common sources of auxiliary information usually come from remote sensing technology, such as airborne laser scanning and satellite imagery. The newly launched NASA's Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI), a full waveform Lidar instrument, provides an unprecedented opportunity of collecting large-scale and dense forest sample plots given its sampling frequency and spatial coverage. However, the geolocation uncertainty associated with GEDI footprints create important challenges for their use for small area estimations.In this study, we designed a process that provides NFI measurements at plot level with GEDI auxiliary in-formation from nearby footprints. We demonstrated that GEDI RH98 is equivalent to NFI dominant height at plot level. We stressed the importance of pairing NFI plots with nearby GEDI footprints, based on not only the dis-tance in between but also their similarities, i.e., forest heights and forest types. Subsequently, these NFI-GEDI pairs were used for small area estimations following a two-phase sampling scheme. We showcased that, with an adequate sample size, small area estimation with GEDI auxiliary data can improve the accuracy of forest volume estimates.

Automated summary

The French National Forest Inventory provides detailed forest information at national and regional scales, but small area estimation is also important for local decision making. Remote sensing technology, such as airborne laser scanning and satellite imagery, can be used as auxiliary information to improve the accuracy of small area estimation. This study demonstrates that pairing the French National Forest Inventory plots with nearby GEDI footprints and using a two-phase sampling scheme can improve the accuracy of forest volume estimates.