Backscatter and interferometry for estimating above-ground biomass of sparse woodland: A case study in Belize

Tropical savannas cover 20% of the Earth´s land surface and are important ecosystems in the global carbon cycle due to their high productivity. This paper evaluates the use of SAR for estimating above-ground biomass of the woody vegetation in heterogeneous tropical savanna woodland in Belize, Central America. Single-pass shortwave InSAR data used are X-band (Intermap) and C-band (AIRSAR and SRTM). L- and P-band SAR backscatter data are from AIRSAR. Results show that SAR backscatter has a relatively low correlation to above ground biomass in the sparse savanna woodlands. Retrieved canopy heights from both X- and C-band InSAR give a better representation of the spatial distribution of AGB, but cannot be used to estimate biomass directly due to the heterogeneity of the canopy.