Investigating the robustness of the new Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager derived texture metrics in estimating plantation forest aboveground biomass in resource constrained areas

The successful launch of the 30-m Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) pushbroom sensor offers a new primary data source necessary for aboveground biomass (AGB) estimation, especially in resource-limited environments. In this work, the strength and performance of Landsat-8 OLI image derived texture metrics (i.e. texture measures and texture ratios) in estimating plantation forest species AGB was investigated. It was hypothesized that the sensor's pushbroom design, coupled with the presence of refined spectral properties, enhanced radiometric resolution (i.e. from 8 bits to 12 bits) and improved signal-to-noise ratio have the potential to provide detailed spectral information necessary for significantly strengthening AGB estimation in medium-density forest canopies. The relationship between image texture metrics and measurements of forest attributes can be used to help characterize complex forests, and enhance fine vegetation biophysical properties, a difficult challenge when using spectral vegetation indices especially in closed canopies. This study examines the prospects of using Landsat-8 OLI sensor derived texture metrics for estimating AGB for three medium-density plantation forest species in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. In order to achieve this objective, three unique data pre-processing techniques were tested (analysis I: Landsat-8 OLI raw spectral-bands vs. raw texture bands; analysis II: Landsat-8 OLI raw spectral-band ratios vs. texture band ratios and analysis III: Landsat-8 OLI derived vegetation indices vs. texture band ratios). The landsat-8 OLI derived texture parameters were examined for robustness in estimating AGB using linear regression, stepwise-multiple linear regression and stochastic gradient boosting regression models. The results of this study demonstrated that all texture parameters particularly band texture ratios calculated using a 3 × 3 window size, could enhance AGB estimation when compared to simple spectral reflectance, simple band ratios and the most popular spectral vegetation indices. For instance, the use of combined texture ratios yielded the highest R2 values of 0.76 (RMSE = 9.55 t ha−1 (18.07%) and CV-RMSE of 0.18); 0.74 (RMSE = 12.81 t ha−1 (17.72%) and CV-RMSE of 0.08); 0.74 (RMSE = 12.67 t ha−1 (06.15%) and CV-RMSE of 0.06) and 0.53 (RMSE = 20.15 t ha−1 (14.40%) and CV-RMSE of 0.15) overall for Eucalyptus dunii, Eucalyptus grandis, Pinus taeda individually and all species, respectively. Overall, the findings of this study provide the necessary insight and motivation to the remote sensing community, particularly in resource constrained regions, to shift towards embracing various texture metrics obtained from the readily-available and cheap multispectral Landsat-8 OLI sensor.