Using aerial photography to estimate wood suitable for charcoal in managed oak forests

D. Ramírez-Mejía; A. Gómez-Tagle; A. Ghilardi

doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aa9c63

Using aerial photography to estimate wood suitable for charcoal in managed oak forests

D. Ramírez-Mejía, A. Gómez-Tagle, A. Ghilardi

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Mexican oak forests (genus Quercus) are frequently used for traditional charcoal production. Appropriate management programs are needed to ensure their long-term use, while conserving the biodiversity and ecosystem services, and associated benefits. A key variable needed to design these programs is the spatial distribution of standing woody biomass. A state-of-the-art methodology using small format aerial photographs was developed to estimate the total aboveground biomass (AGB) and aboveground woody biomass suitable for charcoal making (WSC) in intensively managed oak forests. We used tree crown area (CAap) measurements from very high-resolution (30 cm) orthorectified small format digital aerial photographs as the predictive variable. The CAap accuracy was validated using field measurements of the crown area (CAf ). Allometric relationships between: (a) CAap versus AGB, and (b) CAap versus WSC had a high significance level (R2 > 0.91, p < 0.0001). This approach shows that it is possible to obtain sound biomass estimates as a function of the crown area derived from digital small format aerial photographs.

Original language	English
Article number	025006
Journal	Environmental Research Letters
Volume	13
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa9c63
Publication status	Published - 1 Feb 2018
Externally published	Yes

Funding

This work was supported by UNAM’s PAPIIT IA101513 and Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolas de Hidalgo CIC projects 522209-2014 and 107853-2015. The first author received a graduate studies stipend from CONACYT (No. 549946). We also express our thanks to Mr Hugo Zavala (CIGA, UNAM) for technical support as well to Cap. Rivera (Ave-Express) for sound comments on camera system deployment. Finally, we acknowledge the valuable comments and suggestions by anonymous referees, who helped improve the manuscript. The authors declare no conflicts of interest. Author contributions: A.G-T. and A.G. developed the conceptual framework, A.G-T., A.G. and D.R-M. designed the research; D.RM. performed the research and analyzed the data; A.G-T., D.R-M., and A.G. wrote the paper.

Funders	Funder number
Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología	549946
Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo	522209-2014, 107853-2015
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México	IA101513

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title = "Using aerial photography to estimate wood suitable for charcoal in managed oak forests",

abstract = "Mexican oak forests (genus Quercus) are frequently used for traditional charcoal production. Appropriate management programs are needed to ensure their long-term use, while conserving the biodiversity and ecosystem services, and associated benefits. A key variable needed to design these programs is the spatial distribution of standing woody biomass. A state-of-the-art methodology using small format aerial photographs was developed to estimate the total aboveground biomass (AGB) and aboveground woody biomass suitable for charcoal making (WSC) in intensively managed oak forests. We used tree crown area (CAap) measurements from very high-resolution (30 cm) orthorectified small format digital aerial photographs as the predictive variable. The CAap accuracy was validated using field measurements of the crown area (CAf ). Allometric relationships between: (a) CAap versus AGB, and (b) CAap versus WSC had a high significance level (R2 > 0.91, p < 0.0001). This approach shows that it is possible to obtain sound biomass estimates as a function of the crown area derived from digital small format aerial photographs.",

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AU - Ghilardi, A.

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N2 - Mexican oak forests (genus Quercus) are frequently used for traditional charcoal production. Appropriate management programs are needed to ensure their long-term use, while conserving the biodiversity and ecosystem services, and associated benefits. A key variable needed to design these programs is the spatial distribution of standing woody biomass. A state-of-the-art methodology using small format aerial photographs was developed to estimate the total aboveground biomass (AGB) and aboveground woody biomass suitable for charcoal making (WSC) in intensively managed oak forests. We used tree crown area (CAap) measurements from very high-resolution (30 cm) orthorectified small format digital aerial photographs as the predictive variable. The CAap accuracy was validated using field measurements of the crown area (CAf ). Allometric relationships between: (a) CAap versus AGB, and (b) CAap versus WSC had a high significance level (R2 > 0.91, p < 0.0001). This approach shows that it is possible to obtain sound biomass estimates as a function of the crown area derived from digital small format aerial photographs.

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Using aerial photography to estimate wood suitable for charcoal in managed oak forests

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