Poyang Lake Vegetation Biomass Inversion Using Radarsat-2 Polsar Data and Simplified Water-Cloud Model

Poyang Lake is the largest freshwater lake in China and one of the most important wetlands in the world. Wetland biomass is a key index to weigh the healthiness of wetland ecosystem. Polarimetric information can significantly improve wetland vegetation biomass inversion. In this study, 4 scenes of RADARSAT-2 PolSAR data in year 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2016 were used to estimate the above-ground-biomass (AGB) for the Poyang Lake Wetland. For this purpose, polarimetric decomposition components and a simplified Water-Cloud Model (WCM) were used. The parameters of the simplified WCM were retrieved using the field measurements and the polarimetric decomposition components. Finally, the relationship between the estimated AGB and measured AGB was assessed and the vegetation biomass distribution in year 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2016 were also mapped.