The Assessment of above Ground Biomass and Carbon Sequestration in Community Forests using UAV Technology
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Abstract
The objective of this research is to evaluate the biomass and carbon sequestration of trees in a community forest area located in Tha Song Khon Subdistrict, Mueang Maha Sarakham District, Maha Sarakham Province, using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology combined with field surveys. The operation was divided into three main parts: UAV surveys, field data collection, and the creation of a Canopy Model. The study area covered 66 rai or 10.66 hectares. Agisoft PhotoScan was used for processing aerial photographs. From field surveys in sample plots of 40x40 meters2, totaling 10 plots, the results showed a total of 22 families and 39 species of trees, amounting to 1,241 trees. The most common species found included 457 trees of Dipterocarpus alatus, 224 trees of Shorea obtusa, and 56 trees of Lagerstroemia tomentosa. The evaluation of carbon sequestration using machine learning models from UAVs showed an average of approximately 213.53 tCO2e, 2.022026 kgCO2e/m2, and 0.002022 tCO2e/ha. In contrast, the averaged results from the Canopy Model analysis were 212.51 tCO2e, 2.012442 kgCO2e/m2, and 0.000201 tCO2e/ha. The accuracy assessment of the model was found at a Precision of 0.902, Recall of 0.638, Accuracy of 0.597, F1-Score of 0.747, and Percent of 74.737%, indicating that the model has the capability to analyze trees and to accurately classify canopy shapes.
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