Assessing the Importance of Tree Cover Threshold for Forest Cover Mapping Derived from Global Forest Cover in Myanmar

Comprehensive forest cover mapping is essential for making policy and management decisions. However, creating a forest cover map from raw remote sensing data is a barrier for many users. Here, we investigated the effects of different tree cover thresholds on the accuracy of forest cover maps derived...

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Main Authors: Kay Khaing Lwin, Tetsuji Ota, Katsuto Shimizu, Nobuya Mizoue
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2019-11-01
Series:Forests
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/10/12/1062
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spelling doaj-a0966de778674c8287628579502522ae2020-11-25T02:26:18ZengMDPI AGForests1999-49072019-11-011012106210.3390/f10121062f10121062Assessing the Importance of Tree Cover Threshold for Forest Cover Mapping Derived from Global Forest Cover in MyanmarKay Khaing Lwin0Tetsuji Ota1Katsuto Shimizu2Nobuya Mizoue3Graduate School of Bioresource and Bioenvironmental Sciences, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Fukuoka 819-0395, JapanInstitute of Decision Science for a Sustainable Society, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Fukuoka 819-0395, JapanForestry and Forest Products Research Institute, 1 Matsunosato, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8687, JapanFaculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Fukuoka 819-0395, JapanComprehensive forest cover mapping is essential for making policy and management decisions. However, creating a forest cover map from raw remote sensing data is a barrier for many users. Here, we investigated the effects of different tree cover thresholds on the accuracy of forest cover maps derived from the Global Forest Change Dataset (GFCD) across different ecological zones in a country-scale evaluation of Myanmar. To understand the effect of different thresholds on map accuracy, nine forest cover maps having thresholds ranging from 10% to 90% were created from the GFCD. The accuracy of the forest cover maps within each ecological zone and at the national scale was assessed. The overall accuracies of ecological zones other than tropical rainforest were highest when the threshold for tree cover was less than 50%. The appropriate threshold for tropical rainforests was 80%. Therefore, different optimal tree cover thresholds were required to achieve the highest overall accuracy depending on ecological zones. However, in the unique case of Myanmar, we were able to determine the threshold across the whole country. We concluded that the threshold for tree cover for creating a forest cover map should be determined according to the areal ratio of ecological zones determined from large-scale monitoring. Our results are applicable to tropical regions having similar ecological zones.https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/10/12/1062global forest change dataset (gfcd)global ecological zonetree coveroptimal thresholdmyanmar
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Kay Khaing Lwin
Tetsuji Ota
Katsuto Shimizu
Nobuya Mizoue
spellingShingle Kay Khaing Lwin
Tetsuji Ota
Katsuto Shimizu
Nobuya Mizoue
Assessing the Importance of Tree Cover Threshold for Forest Cover Mapping Derived from Global Forest Cover in Myanmar
Forests
global forest change dataset (gfcd)
global ecological zone
tree cover
optimal threshold
myanmar
author_facet Kay Khaing Lwin
Tetsuji Ota
Katsuto Shimizu
Nobuya Mizoue
author_sort Kay Khaing Lwin
title Assessing the Importance of Tree Cover Threshold for Forest Cover Mapping Derived from Global Forest Cover in Myanmar
title_short Assessing the Importance of Tree Cover Threshold for Forest Cover Mapping Derived from Global Forest Cover in Myanmar
title_full Assessing the Importance of Tree Cover Threshold for Forest Cover Mapping Derived from Global Forest Cover in Myanmar
title_fullStr Assessing the Importance of Tree Cover Threshold for Forest Cover Mapping Derived from Global Forest Cover in Myanmar
title_full_unstemmed Assessing the Importance of Tree Cover Threshold for Forest Cover Mapping Derived from Global Forest Cover in Myanmar
title_sort assessing the importance of tree cover threshold for forest cover mapping derived from global forest cover in myanmar
publisher MDPI AG
series Forests
issn 1999-4907
publishDate 2019-11-01
description Comprehensive forest cover mapping is essential for making policy and management decisions. However, creating a forest cover map from raw remote sensing data is a barrier for many users. Here, we investigated the effects of different tree cover thresholds on the accuracy of forest cover maps derived from the Global Forest Change Dataset (GFCD) across different ecological zones in a country-scale evaluation of Myanmar. To understand the effect of different thresholds on map accuracy, nine forest cover maps having thresholds ranging from 10% to 90% were created from the GFCD. The accuracy of the forest cover maps within each ecological zone and at the national scale was assessed. The overall accuracies of ecological zones other than tropical rainforest were highest when the threshold for tree cover was less than 50%. The appropriate threshold for tropical rainforests was 80%. Therefore, different optimal tree cover thresholds were required to achieve the highest overall accuracy depending on ecological zones. However, in the unique case of Myanmar, we were able to determine the threshold across the whole country. We concluded that the threshold for tree cover for creating a forest cover map should be determined according to the areal ratio of ecological zones determined from large-scale monitoring. Our results are applicable to tropical regions having similar ecological zones.
topic global forest change dataset (gfcd)
global ecological zone
tree cover
optimal threshold
myanmar
url https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/10/12/1062
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