Experimenting the design-based k-NN approach for mapping and estimation under forest management planning

doi:10.3832/ifor0604-009

Estimation and mapping of forest attributes are a fundamental support for forest management planning. This study describes a practical experimentation concerning the use of design-based k-Nearest Neighbors (k-NN) approach to estimate and map selected attributes in the framework of inventories at forest management level. The study area was the Chiarino forest within the Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga National Park (central Italy). Aboveground biomass and current annual increment of tree volume were selected as the attributes of interest for the test. Field data were acquired within 28 sample plots selected by stratified random sampling. Satellite data were acquired by a Landsat 5 TM multispectral image. Attributes from field surveys and Landsat image processing were coupled by k-NN to predict the attributes of interest for each pixel of the Landsat image. Achieved results demonstrate the effectiveness of the k-NN approach for statistical estimation, that is compatible with the produced forest attribute raster maps and also proves to be characterized, in the considered study case, by a precision double than that obtained by conventional inventory based on field sample plots only.

Keywords

Forest management planning, k-Nearest Neighbors, Landsat, Estimation, Mapping

Authors’ address

(1)

Department for Innovation in Biological, Agro-food and Forest systems (DIBAF), University of Tuscia, v. San Camillo de Lellis snc, I-01100 Viterbo (Italy)

(2)

Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga National Park, Assergi, AQ (Italy)

Corresponding author

W Mattioli
walter.mattioli@unitus.it

Citation

Mattioli W, Quatrini V, Di Paolo S, Di Santo D, Giuliarelli D, Angelini A, Portoghesi L, Corona P (2012). Experimenting the design-based k-NN approach for mapping and estimation under forest management planning. iForest 5: 26-30. - doi: 10.3832/ifor0604-009

Academic Editor

Agostino Ferrara

Paper history

Received: Oct 14, 2011
Accepted: Jan 19, 2012

First online: Feb 27, 2012
Publication Date: Feb 27, 2012
Publication Time: 1.30 months

Open Access

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

Breakdown by View Type

(Waiting for server response...)

Article Usage

Total Article Views: 50231
(from publication date up to now)

Breakdown by View Type
HTML Page Views: 43401
Abstract Page Views: 2193
PDF Downloads: 3308
Citation/Reference Downloads: 65
XML Downloads: 1264

Web Metrics
Days since publication: 4651
Overall contacts: 50231
Avg. contacts per week: 75.60

Article Citations

Article citations are based on data periodically collected from the Clarivate Web of Science web site
(last update: Feb 2023)

Total number of cites (since 2012): 3
Average cites per year: 0.25

(no Plumx Metrics available for this paper)

Publication Metrics

by Dimensions ^©

Articles citing this article

List of the papers citing this article based on CrossRef Cited-by.

(1)

APAT (2007)
Italian Greenhouse Inventory 1990-2005. National Inventory Report 2007. Annual Report for submission under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the European Union’s Greenhouse Gas Monitoring Mechanism, LULUCF sector, 2007.
Gscholar

(2)

Baffetta F, Fattorini L, Franceschi S, Corona P (2009)
Design-based approach to k-nearest neighbours technique for coupling field and remotely sensed data in forest surveys. Remote Sensing of Environment 113: 463-475.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(3)

Baffetta F, Corona P, Fattorini L (2011a)
Design-based diagnostics for k-NN estimators of forest resources. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 41: 59-72.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(4)

Baffetta F, Corona P, Fattorini L (2011b)
A matching procedure to improve k-NN estimation of forest attribute maps. Forest Ecology and Management (early online).
CrossRef | Gscholar

(5)

Castellani C, Scrinzi G, Tabacchi G, Tosi V (1984)
Inventario Forestale Nazionale Italiano (I.F.N.I.). Tavole di cubatura a doppia entrata. Ministero dell’Agricoltura e delle Foreste, Istituto Sperimentale per l’Assestamento Forestale e per l’Alpicoltura, Trento. [In Italian]
Gscholar

(6)

Chirici G, Barbati A, Corona P, Marchetti M, Travaglini D, Maselli F, Bertini R (2008)
Nonparametric and parametric methods using satellite images for estimating growing stock volume in alpine and Mediterranean forest ecosystems. Remote Sensing of Environment 112: 2686-2700.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(7)

Corona P, Marchetti M (2007)
Outlining multi-purpose forest inventories to assess the ecosystem approach in forestry. Plant Biosystems 141 (2): 243-251.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(8)

Corona P, Scotti R (2011)
Systemic silviculture, adaptive management and forest monitoring perspectives. L’Italia Forestale e Montana 3: 219-224.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(9)

Corona P (2007)
Metodi di inventariazione delle masse e degli incrementi legnosi in assestamento forestale. Aracne Editrice, Roma, pp. 126. [In Italian]
Gscholar

(10)

Gomarasca MA (2009)
Basics of geomatics. AIT, 2004, pp. 656.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(11)

INFC (2005)
Linee generali del progetto per il secondo inventario forestale nazionale italiano. Inventario Nazionale delle Foreste e dei serbatoi forestali di Carbonio. MiPAF. Ispettorato Generale del Corpo Forestale dello Stato, ISAFA, Trento. [In Italian]
Gscholar

(12)

IPCC (2006)
Guidelines for national Green House gas inventories. Volume 4. Agriculture, forestry and other lands use.
Gscholar

(13)

Köhl M, Magnussen S, Marchetti M (2006)
Sampling methods, remote Sensing and GIS multiresource forest inventory. Tropical Forestry Series, Springer Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg, Germany.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(14)

Maselli F, Chirici G, Bottai L, Corona P, Marchetti M (2005)
Estimation of Mediterranean forest attributes by the application of k-NN procedure to multitemporal Landsat ETM+ images. International Journal of Remote Sensing 17: 3781-3796.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(15)

Mayhew S (2009)
A dictionary of geography (4th edn). Oxford University Press Inc., New York, USA.
Gscholar

(16)

McRoberts RE, Tomppo EO (2007)
Remote sensing support for national forest inventories. Remote Sensing of Environment 110: 412-419.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(17)

McRoberts RE (2011a)
Satellite image-based maps: Scientific inference or pretty pictures? Remote Sensing of Environment 115: 715-724.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(18)

McRoberts RE (2011b)
Estimating forest attribute parameters for small areas using nearest neighbors techniques. Forest Ecology and Management (early view)
CrossRef | Gscholar

(19)

Tomppo E, Olsson H, Ståhl G, Nilsson M, Hagner O, Katila M (2008)
Combining national forest inventory field plots and remote sensing data for forest databases. Remote Sensing of Environment 112: 1982-1999.
CrossRef | Gscholar