Mapping Aboveground Biomass Stocks Across Africa’s Miombo Woodlands Using Multi-Scale Lidar and Satellite Data

Aboveground biomass (AGB), traditionally estimated across large scales using forest inventory approaches, is an essential climate variable used to monitor the carbon released and sequestered by woody vegetation. However, forest inventory methods rely on tree-level allometries which are often biassed. We estimate AGB density (AGBD) wall-to-wall over African Miombo woodland using accurate and unbiased AGBD measurements derived from multi-scale lidar technology (MSL), which circumvent the use of allometric models, in combination with spaceborne lidar data and satellite imagery. A comparative analysis of the AGB stocks for the Zambezia region (Mozambique) is performed against allometric-derived AGBD reference datasets and biome-average emission factor values found in the literature. Allometric-based approaches show underestimations in AGB stocks ranging from -3% to -33% of the AGB stocks estimated using the reference MSL AGBD dataset.