iBoske | What type of remote sensing do I need?

Iain Woodhouse

What is your main interest? Forests. Flood risk. Corridor mapping. Other.
At the moment we are focused on the three topics listed above. Please get in touch if you have another application you need help with. info@carbomap.com.
What do you want to measure? Biomass/carbon. Biodiversity. Forest Health. Canopy Height. Forest Change Monitoring.
Multi and hyperspectral imagery is what you need. .
Over what total extent does your forest cover? <1,000km2. Between about 1,000km2 and 20,000km2. >20,000km2.
While LiDAR is always the best for forest biomass mapping, it becomes a big job if you are covering very large areas. We would typically advise a satellite radar solution for this. .
Is your forest patchy or does it continuously cover most of the area? Patchy. Continuous.
A UAV solution is your best bet as it can be flown over the small areas, one by one. A fixed-wing UAV with a LiDAR, such as Carbomap's F-Lux would give you 3D data very quickly..
Are you after high accuracy (and prepared to pay for it) or lower accuracy (lower cost).. High Accuracy. Lower accuracy.
Airborne LiDAR is definitely your answer. UAV LiDAR is your route to cut costs, as it will likely be cheaper than a full airborne survey..
A satellite radar solution is the cheapest way to do the job, but the results for biomass are variable. Topography can introduce large errors, and it will likely saturate by 100 tonnes/hectare. The BIOMASS mission (2020 or later), the GEDI LiDAR on the International Space Station,.
Are you after high accuracy (and prepared to pay for it) or lower accuracy (lower cost).. High accuracy. Lower accuracy.
Airborne LiDAR is definitely your answer. UAV LiDAR is your route to cut costs, as it will likely be cheaper than a full airborne survey..
For larger areas radar remote sensing starts to become a suitable alternative to LiDAR especially if you have a tight budget..
Which is more important for your situation? Fragmentation of vegetation. Species diversity.
Combination of LiDAR or radar, and multispectral imaging..
Hyperspectral imagery. .
Do you have a "bare earth" DEM? Yes.. No..
There are a number of satellite radar solutions that may work for you. Get in touch and we can explain how they work. Expect about $10 per km2..
While there are some radar solutions, they are complex and far from operational. Airborne LiDAR is your best bet, either from aircraft or drone. Call us on 44 131 651 4670 or drop us an email at info@carbomap.com.
What kind of change? Deforestation (clearcut). Windthrow. Degradation. Forest Fire.
TBD.
TBD.
TBD.
How often do you need the data? Within 1 week of the cutting. Within 1 month. Annually or longer.
Satellite radar is your only solution. Optical satellites may work in areas where cloud cover is not an issue. .
Satellite optical or radar.
radar, optical or lidar or SFM.
High resolution ground elevation is what you need. Lets see what is optimum. Does your area of interest have a high % of vegetation cover? No. < 20% cover. . Moderate. Somewhere between 20-60%. Substantial. >60%.
Airborne LiDAR, structure from motion (SfM) and satellite radar will work.. LiDAR. SfM. Radar.
SfM using small UAVs to collect optical imagery which is then combined together to create a 3D point cloud..
Shortwave radar. .
How big is the at risk area? <1,000km. >1,000km.
UAV LiDAR.
Airborne Lidar.
Do you need a very low cost solution? Yes. No.
Use structure from motion using a low cost drone. The method will be poor for those areas with high vegetation cover, but will work well where the vegetation is not so dense..
How large is the area to be covered? <1,000km2. >1,000km2.
UAV LiDAR.
Airborne lidar.
How large is the area to be covered? <1,000km2. >1,000km2.
UAV LiDAR.
Airborne LiDAR.
What kind? Transmission lines. Transport routes. Pipelines.
LiDAR.
Patchy.
LiDAR.