PALSAR wide-area mapping and annual monitoring methodology for Borneo

Abstract

This paper describes the operational radar mapping processing chain developed and steps taken to produce a provisional wide-area PALSAR forest and land cover map of Borneo for the year 2007, compliant with emerging international standards (CEOS guidelines, FAO LCCS). The methodology is based on the classification of FBS and FBD image pairs. To cover Borneo the equivalent of 554 standard images is required. The final overall accuracy assessment result shows this demonstration map product is in 85.5% full agreement with the independent reference dataset and in 7.8% ‘partial agreement’. Monitoring land cover change on an annual basis requires consistent year-to-year mapping. This implies that the localised and temporal effects of environmental factors on the backscatter level (such as inundation or El Niño drought) and variation due to differing observation dates/cycles (related to change of season) have to be accounted for strip by strip. New concepts for (a) automated intercalibration of radar data, (b) time-consistency and (c) automated adaptation of radar signatures to changing environmental conditions have been evaluated for its usefulness to improve the classification and the consistency of annual monitoring