A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems, School of Engineering and Technology

Thesis (M. Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2012

This study focuses on above ground biomass (AGB) in Dipterocarp forest along the road number 9, Savannakhet Province, Lao PDR, Southeast Asia. The aims of the study were to i) explore in both direct and indirect existing measurements of AGB estimation ii) examine the characteristic of Dipterocarp forest from forest inventory iii) study an alternative AGB estimation through multiple regression analysis on ALOS A VNIR-2, PALSAR, and AGB forest inventory iv) examine the optical and radar characteristic of Dipterocarp forest. Based on both literature and empirical study, a framework was developed to help understand the methodology for this study. For estimation of AGB, the direct and indirect measurements were used in this study. Destructive and Non-Destructive methods were fulfilled AGB estimation. ALOS AVNIR-2 and PALSAR (L-band) HH and HVPolarization were applied for this study. Then, statistical analysis was fulfilled to achieve the function for AGB estimation. The direct measurement done by manpower was expensive and time-consuming. Moreover, wide and inaccessible forest areas were hard to collect data although AGB was very precise and accurate. Therefore, the indirect measurement extracted the productivity through remote sensing technology. Although multiple regressions served an unsatisfactory correlation to the study due to the saturation level on radar backscatter, the potential of radar backscatter characteristic can be explained Dipterocarp forest through three consecutive years on satellite images.