Forest mapping using multi-temporal polarimetric SAR data in southwest China

In the southwest of China, Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is anticipated to provide an important tool for forestry inventory because of its all weather capabilities. In this paper, Zhazuo area in Guizhou Province of southwest China, with typical Karst landform, was selected as the test site, and six RADARSAT-2 polarimetric images were used for experiments. Methods for forest mapping based on polarimetric decomposition and multi-temporal polarimetric SAR data fusion were proposed. Experiments showed that polarimetric signatures of forest were significantly different with other targets, and fusion of multi-temporal RADARSAT-2 images can effectively improve image quality and enhance forest and deforestation information.