Mapping total aboveground biomass change in the brazilian cerrado using uav-lidar

Continuous monitoring and quantification of aboveground biomass (AGB) using in situ methodologies are limited by cost and time. UAV-lidar has been used as an efficient tool for estimating AGB, however, up to date, no study has attempted to estimate total AGB (TAGB) change detection using UAV-lidar in tropical savannas. This study aimed to estimate TAGB stock and changes in the Brazilian savanna (Cerrado) using UAV-lidar data and Support Vector Machine (SVM) model. We used four canopy-level derived metrics from the UAV-lidar data (COV, H99TH, HSKE, and HKUR) for modeling TAGB with an R2 of 0.62, RMSE of 26.62 Mg/ha (46.5%), and bias -3.85 Mg/ha (6.73%), respectively. Our results showed an increase in the average TAGB of 5.07 mg/ha for the SCNPK site in 2021 when compared to 2019. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS) test confirmed a statistical difference in the distribution of TAGB (p-value =< 0.5).