Monitoring Forest Biomass Dynamics in the Laurentides Reserve, Canada, Using Lidar Data and Radar Imagery

We designed a multisource approach for estimating forest above ground biomass (AGB) for the Laurentides Wildlife reserve in Canada, using airborne and spaceborne LiDAR data and radar imagery. Our workflow used detailed forestry inventory data as the starting point of the analysis, and remote sensing data to extend the spatial and temporal coverage of the biomass estimation. We estimated an average value of 35 Mg/ha of biomass for individual forest stands in the reserve, and an increase in average forest stand biomass between 2015 and 2022 of 3 Mg/ha, which indicates that the Laurentides reserve is overall a stable sink of Carbon. Our results show the benefits of using multisource remote sensing data for producing multitemporal and spatially explicit AGB maps.