Humid Tropical Forest Monitoring with Multi-
Temporal L-, C- and X-Band SAR Data
Janik Deutscher, Karlheinz Gutjahr, Roland Perko, Hannes Raggam, Manuela Hirschmugl and Mathias Schardt
Institute for Information and Communication Technologies, JOANNEUM RESEARCH
Graz, Austria
janik.deutscher@joanneum.at
AbstractHumid tropical forest monitoring with EO is
limited by frequent cloud cover and rapid forest regrowth. Both
can be overcome by using temporally dense SAR image stacks.
We present a method that uses the coefficient of variation of
multi-temporal SAR data stacks to map tropical forest
disturbances. The SAR data pre-processing and the forest change
detection workflows are described and illustrated. The method
was tested at a humid tropical forest site in the Republic of
Congo. At this test site we use data from three different SAR
sensors: ALOS PALSAR, Sentinel-1 and TerraSAR-X. The forest
disturbance maps are validated by visual interpretation and
compared to the Landsat based Humid Tropical Forest
Disturbance Alerts available from Global Forest Watch. Change
mapping accuracies for plots larger than 0.5 ha are very high:
76% for ALOS PALSAR, 96% for TerraSAR-X and 98% for
Sentinel-1. For Sentinel-1, producer accuracies were derived for
different forest disturbance types. The overall accuracy is 81.8%,
with highest values for deforestation in oil palm plantations and
burnt areas. The results are similar to the accuracy of the Humid
Tropical Forest Disturbance Alert layer, which detects 85.6% of
all reference areas. We also show that fusion of the disturbance
maps on a result level is possible. The presented method could be
adapted to near real-time processing and to a combined
processing with optical EO data.
Keywordsforest degradation, Sentinel-1, TerraSAR-X,
ALOS PALSAR, time series analysis
I. INTRODUCTION
Most tropical forest monitoring studies are based on
medium and high resolution optical remote sensing data. Forest
monitoring with optical remote sensing data is operational at
global level [1] and a first near-real time monitoring system for
humid tropical forests based on Landsat 8 data (L-8) has
recently been operationalized [2]. For a comprehensive
overview on forest monitoring with optical EO methods the
reader is referred to a recent review publication [3].
Despite its wide range of applications tropical forest
monitoring with optical EO data is severely limited by two
factors: frequent cloud cover and rapid forest regrowth. These
two factors make forest disturbance mapping a challenging
task, as the number of available cloud free images is often not
sufficient to detect all forest disturbances before forest
regrowth. SAR systems have the advantage of providing
cloud-free imagery of forests in the tropical regions with
persistent cloud cover and SAR data acquisitions are
independent from daytime. Both these issues result in higher
acquisition rates compared to optical sensors. Currently, SAR
based monitoring systems are not yet at the same operational
level as systems based on optical data, which partly is related
to limited SAR data access. This has changed with the launch
of the Sentinel-1 satellites that provide imagery for most
tropical forests every 12-24 days. The emergence of new
cloud computation facilities and ongoing developments of
(open source) SAR tools for noise reduction, temporal
filtering, co-registration, polarimetric analysis, texture analysis
and interferometric processing (e.g. ESAs Sentinel-1 toolbox)
will allow to integrate SAR based workflows in operational
forest monitoring.
Here, we present a method for tropical forest monitoring
based on the coefficient of variation and backscatter trend in
multi-temporal SAR data stacks from three SAR sensors: L-
band ALOS PALSAR, C-band Sentinel-1 (S-1) and X-band
TerraSAR-X (TSX). The method is tested at a humid tropical
forest site in the Republic of Congo. Our preliminary validation
results demonstrate the potential of multi-temporal SAR data
analysis for tropical forest monitoring.
II. STATE OF THE ART
Forest change monitoring with SAR data is usually
performed by measuring the SAR backscatter change over
time. Recent studies that use this method for tropical forest
monitoring are often based on L-band ALOS PALSAR data
(e.g. [4], [5]). Some approaches also include coherence
information to better differentiate forest from non-forest areas.
Indirect approaches relate the backscatter signal to forest
biomass using regional empirical regression models [6] and
then calculate biomass changes over time. Other SAR based
approaches use 3D information from radargrammetry to detect
gaps in the forest canopy [7].
There are a number of recent studies that argue in support
of a combined use of SAR and optical data for forest
monitoring [8]. Results indicate that a combined use can
improve tropical forest monitoring for burnt area detection [9],
assessing forest biomass [10], and for improved forest/non-
forest mapping, deforestation and degradation monitoring [5],
[11].
 III. DATA AND TESTSITE
Our test site is situated in the north of the Republic of
Congo. The climate at the test site is tropical humid and
characterized by an annual precipitation of 16002000 mm per
year with two dry seasons, one in June to August and a
stronger one from December through to February. The area is
dominated by humid tropical forests that cover about 95% of
the area. Open to very open Marantaceae forests cover the
majority of the study area, but swamp forests occur along the
rivers [12].
The image data stacks used for the analysis consist of S-1
GRD IW dual-pol data, StripMap and ScanSAR TSX data and
fine beam dual (FBD) ALOS PALSAR data. An overview of
the image stacks is provided in Table 1. ALOS PALSAR data
is from 2007 to 2010, the other images are all from 2015 and
2016.

TABLE I. OVERVIEW OF SAR DATA STACKS

sensor data type images time window

Sentinel-1 GRD IW VV/VH 11 16.04.2015-27.07.2016
TerraSAR-X ScanSAR MGD 5 12.02.2016-23.06.2016
TerraSAR-X StripMap MGD 6 21.04.2015-03.10.2015
ALOS high resolution 6 04.07.2007-12.07.2010
PALSAR mode: FBD
IV. METHODS
The proposed method includes a SAR pre-processing
workflow and a forest change detection workflow. Forest
change detection is based on the coefficient of variation of the
SAR data stack and a trend component of the backscatter
signal. The following sub-chapters explain the two workflows
in detail.
A. SAR pre-processing workflow
Prior to classification, the SAR data stacks were pre-
processed with Joanneum Research RSG software
(www.remotesensing.at). The pre-processing workflow is
illustrated in Figure 1. First, images from all sensors were
ingested and orbit parameters were updated. Then, images
were processed to gamma naught based on an SRTM DEM
and multi-looking to 20m was applied. A modified Frost filter
with a 3x3 pixel window was used for reducing speckle noise.
For each stack, the images were registered to a master image
(first image of the stack). A multi-temporal filter (3x3
window) was applied for further noise reduction. Each
registered image stack was then analyzed by simple statistical
methods resulting in the following statistics images: mean,
minimum and maximum backscatter, standard deviation,
coefficient of variation, mean of the first three images, and
mean of the last three images. The registered image stack and
the stack of statistics images were then orthorectified to 20m
spatial resolution.
Fig. 1. Schematic illustration of the workflow; examplarily for Sentinel-1.
B. SAR forest change detection workflow
The forest change detection workflow is illustrated in
Figure 2. The workflow is based on a thresholding approach
applied to the coefficient of variation of the entire stack. It is
assumed that areas of forest cover change are characterized by
high backscatter variation, similar to that of agricultural areas.
For dual-pol data we calculate the mean of the coefficient of
variation of both polarizations. This mean image is multiplied
with the backscatter trend (mean backscatter of first three
images subtracted from the mean backscatter of the last three
images). The number of images used for estimating the
backscatter trend can be modified based on the total number of
images in the stack. A threshold value was used for separating
changed from unchanged areas. The threshold value was
computed based on reference plots from Sentinel-2, Landsat-8
and Spot-5 data. We use a two stage threshold masking
approach: an initial conservative threshold (85% of reference
plots detected), and a more liberal threshold (95% of reference
plots detected) which is only applied in a buffer of 50m
around the first mask. The higher values in the buffered area
should allow the inclusion of smaller features, e.g. selective
logging patches near logging roads. Finally, non-forest areas
were removed using a non-forest mask generated from Global
Forest Watch and Humid Tropical Forest Disturbance Alerts
data [1], [2].
Fig. 2. Schematic illustration of the forest change detection workflow.
Fig. 3. Intermediate products and final map Sentinel-1 example: a) mean
Examples of the intermediate results from the two coefficient of variation (VV and VH); b) backscatter trend; c) combined
workflows are presented in Figure 3 based on the S-1 image product of coefficient of variation and backscatter trend; d) S-1 disturbance
stack which covers a time window of 15 months. Image a) map (red: mapped disturbances; black: non-forest areas are removed).
shows the mean coefficient of variation of the S-1 stack. Image
b) shows the derived backscatter trend. Some areas show The second validation is based on 445 change plots (20m)
positive backscatter trends (assumed an increase in vegetation), derived from visual interpretation of the HR optical time series
while some areas show a decrease in backscatter (assumed a reference. The reference forest change plots are classified
loss of vegetation cover). In the combined product (image c), according to the dominant disturbance type. The results for the
the areas with high variation and negative backscatter trend are S-1 forest change map are presented in Table 2 and are
well delineated. Forest changes are then classified based on a compared to the L-8 based Humid Tropical Forest Disturbance
threshold approach (red area in image d). Alerts (HTFDA, [2]) for the same time window. The overall
accuracy for the S-1 SAR forest change map is 81.8%, which is
slightly lower than the Landsat based result (85.6%). Burnt
V. RESULTS & DISCUSSION forest areas and palm plantations show the highest accuracies.
Three forest change maps were derived from the data
stacks, one for each sensor. The two TSX stacks were fused on TABLE II. SENTINEL-1 VALIDATION RESULT AND COMPARISON WITH [2]
a result level. The results were validated with two different
approaches. For the first approach 50 forest change pixels are
randomly selected from the three forest change maps, but only nr. of % %
disturbance
reference detected detected
from plots larger than 0.5 ha, which is a common MMU for type
plots by S-1 HTFDA
deforestation. The 0.5 ha plot size approach mostly eliminates burnt forest areas 223 88.3 91.9
commission errors, which are more frequent for SAR than for
deforestation in oil palm 12 100 100
optical data due to speckle noise. All random pixels were plantation
validated based on optical time series data (Landsat-8, deforestation large > 1 ha 19 58.0 100
Sentinel-2, SPOT-5). All approaches show high accuracies for
deforestation small < 1 ha 118 78.9 78.9
the change maps: 76% for ALOS PALSAR, 96% for TSX and
selective logging patches < 0.2 ha 7 14.2 14.2
98% for S-1. The lower values for ALOS PALSAR seem to be
logging roads 66 75.6 75.6
related to image density and the time window. Only six images
are available for 3 years. The time intervals between the six 445 81.8 85.6
images seem too long for estimating a reliable backscatter
trend. Non-fire disturbances 222 75.2 79.3

Fig. 4. S-1 SAR forest disturbance mapping examples (right) compared with
Landsat 8: a) and b) burnt areas; c) and d) forest changes in palm plantation.
Fig. 5. Two mapping examples with non-forest areas in black or white: a)
first test site: Landsat based Humid Tropical Forest Disturbance Alerts from
04/2015-06/2016 [2]; b) same area and time frame mapped by Sentinel-1; c)
second test site: Landsat based Humid Tropical Forest Disturbance Alerts
from 04/2015-06/2016 [2]; d) same area and time frame mapped by a
combination of TerraSAR-X (blue, images from 04/2015-10/2015) and
Sentinel-1 (red, images from 11/2015-06/2016)
Figure 4 (top) shows an example for burnt area detection and
for deforestation in an oil palm plantation (bottom). The burnt
area extent corresponds well to that presented by [9]. Figure 5
compares the mapped forest changes of the HTFDA [2] with
changes mapped by S-1 (red). The lower right image combines
the mapping results of TSX StripMap data (blue) with the S-1
changes (red). The S-1 image stack has no images between
4/2015 and 11/2015 and TSX data can be used to fill the gap.
VI. CONCLUSION
We present a method to analyze multi-temporal SAR data
from three sensors for tropical forest monitoring. The method
can be applied to different SAR data stacks and it provides
reliable forest change detection results similar in accuracy to
optical Landsat based maps. Future work will focus on a more
detailed validation and on developing near real-time forest
monitoring services based on SAR or SAR/optical data fusion.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The presented work has received funding from the Austrian
Research Promotion Agency FFG under grant agreement No
847998 (Project LCX-SAR). Data was partly provided through
JAXA (PI No. 3003) and DLR (Project-ID LAN2817).
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