remote sensing

Editorial
Novel Approaches in Tropical Forests Mapping and
Monitoring–Time for Operationalization
Carlos Portillo-Quintero 1, *, Jose L. Hernández-Stefanoni 2 , Gabriela Reyes-Palomeque 2
and Mukti R. Subedi 1,3

1 Department of Natural Resources Management, College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural

Resources Management, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79401, USA
2 Centro de Investigación Científica de Yucatán A.C., Unidad de Recursos Naturales,
Calle 43 # 130, x 32 y 34 Colonia Chuburná de Hidalgo, Mérida CP 97205, Yucatán, Mexico
3 Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
* Correspondence: [email protected]

For more than three decades, the remote sensing scientific community has successfully
generated predictive models of tropical forest attributes and ecological processes at the
leaf, canopy, patch and landscape scale by linking field-measured data to remotely sensed
spectral values, as well as other variables derived from remotely sensed data. The main
interest of these applications is to help describe ecological and functional patterns occurring
at larger geographic scales with sufficient accuracy and precision and enable scientists
to better understand ecological processes, such as the relationship between atmospheric
fluxes, plant structural and ecophysiological traits, soil attributes, anthropogenic use,
species occurrence and animal movement. However, as the earth’s environment suffers
from ever-increasing human use and abuse, detecting spatiotemporal changes in these
variables has become a necessary decision-making tool in conservation action and natural
Citation: Portillo-Quintero, C.; resources’ management. Moving from modeling into the study of soil, plants, wildlife and
Hernández-Stefanoni, J.L.; socioecological processes using remotely sensed data requires the extrapolation of single
Reyes-Palomeque, G.; Subedi, M.R.
time-step models to its application on a time series of data with the same expected accuracy.
Novel Approaches in Tropical Forests
The challenges in this matter are not trivial, since changes in soil moisture conditions, cloud
Mapping and Monitoring–Time for
contamination, canopy and leaf-level geometry and physiology can affect the strength of
Operationalization. Remote Sens.
the proposed models. In this context, the term ‘Operationalization’ refers to migration from
2022, 14, 5068. https://doi.org/
single time-step models to time series but also refers to the design and implementation
10.3390/rs14205068
of user-friendly tools to increase the efficacy of communicating spatiotemporal trends to
Received: 15 September 2022 the users.
Accepted: 4 October 2022 Today, dense time series of optical, radar, and LiDAR in proximal, airborne, and
Published: 11 October 2022 space-borne sensing systems have become publicly available and are accessible through
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral cloud-based platforms. In addition, efficient data processing using desktop or web-based in-
with regard to jurisdictional claims in teractive programming software has helped scientists develop new ways to detect changes
published maps and institutional affil- in tropical forest attributes at multiple geographic and temporal scales using dense time
iations. series of remotely sensed data. This Special Issue, entitled “Novel Approaches in Tropical
Forest Mapping and Monitoring—Time for Operationalization I”, focuses on state-of-the-art
research that addresses the challenges of upscaling biological, biophysical and biochemical
attributes of tropical forests in complex landscapes and understanding their dynamics at
Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. multiple spatial and temporal scales.
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. In the first submitted communication, Portillo-Quintero et al. [1] review the state-of-
This article is an open access article
the-art in modeling techniques for forest-cover changes, forest structure, species composi-
distributed under the terms and
tion, and structural and functional vegetation attributes. Portillo-Quintero et al. indicate
conditions of the Creative Commons
that current operational monitoring systems are mostly focused on biomass and forest
Attribution (CC BY) license (https://
cover change, and recommends integrating multiple data sources and techniques to mon-
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/
itor structural, functional, and compositional attributes using tropical forest monitoring
4.0/).

Remote Sens. 2022, 14, 5068. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14205068 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/remotesensing

Remote Sens. 2022, 14, 5068 2 of 4

systems. This paper also recommends a decentralized implementation of methods to adjust

to local climatic and ecological characteristics and ensure proper end-user engagement.
The work by Pacheco-Angulo et al. [2] shows an overall precision of 94.3% when
using a novel approach to efficiently map selective logging and forest degradation in
the Venezuelan Amazon. Their analytical approach used Landsat-based linear spectral
unmixing to map soil fraction and predict the location of log landings, logging roads and
logging gaps, and then estimate the approximate area of forest degradation by selective
logging within a buffer of 300 m. Their methods are intended as a local-based computing
analytical approach, capable of functioning under conditions of limited internet connectivity
in remote areas.
Gao et al. [3] evaluated how trend and seasonal model components of the Breaks
for Additive Season and Trend (BFAST) algorithm contribute to disturbance detection in
different forest types. Their results showed that, for all forests combined, the amplitude
and the data quality of the stable historical period and its length contribute the most to
disturbance detection. This has implications for proper BFAST output evaluation and
developing forest-monitoring schemes using the BFAST algorithm.
Hernandez-Stefanoni et al. [4] generated improved moderate-resolution spatial models
of carbon density and species richness for the tropical forests of the Yucatan Peninsula,
Mexico, based on field data from the Mexican National Forest Inventory. The authors
used random forest regression modeling to predict species richness and carbon stocks
from backscatter coefficient values and texture metrics derived from Advanced Land
Observing Satellite Phased Array L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (ALOS-2 PALSAR-2),
as well as climate data, at a 25 m pixel resolution. The paper discusses the challenges and
opportunities of the large-scale monitoring of carbon and species richness in the study area
using radar data.
Solorzano et al. [5] demonstrated that, compared to the random forest algorithm,
the deep learning algorithm U-Net performs better when obtaining accurate land-cover
classification in complex tropical environments, especially when combining multispectral
imagery and radar imagery. Their study was applied in the Selva Lacandona region
in Mexico.
Kacic et al. [6] present a methodology to generate high-resolution maps (10 m) of
canopy height, total canopy cover, Plant-Area-Index and Foliage-Height-Diversity-Index
based on Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2 and Global Ecosystems Dynamics Investigation (GEDI)-
derived vegetation attributes. Their assessment was performed in the tropical forests of
the Paraguayan Chaco, but the presented methodology is also a promising data analysis
strategy for other tropical forest environments. Multiple observations from GEDI will allow
for the multi-temporal monitoring of vegetation structure, e.g., to detect degraded forests
due to differences in canopy height.
Wang et al. [7] characterized the structural features of tropical species from Handheld
Laser Scanning (HLS) data with 23 LiDAR structural parameters, involving six branch,
eleven crown and six entire-tree parameters, and evaluated five machine learning (ML)
models. The authors found that the support vector machine with a polynomial kernel
outperformed other selected models, yielding a classification accuracy of 84.09%. The
study shows that HLS can be a time- and cost-efficient method for the in situ monitoring of
tropical forest structural traits and species classification.
Takeshige et al. [8] tested whether gray-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) textures
metrics derived from Landsat data and Sentinel-1 C-band SAR data were helpful for
discriminating between fern thickets, vine-laden forests, and logged-over forests without
ferns and vines in the tropical forests of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. The authors used the
gradient-boosting decision tree method, implemented using the extreme gradient boosting
(XGBoost) algorithm, which has been reported to have a high predictive performance in
land-cover classification. Their study showed that GLCM texture variables were especially
effective at separating fern/vine vegetation from the non-degraded forest, but the SAR
data showed a limited effect.
Remote Sens. 2022, 14, 5068 3 of 4

Escobar-Lopez et al. [9] were able to predict the location and distribution of three types
of coffee agroforestry systems in the tropical forests of Chiapas, Mexico through the use
of Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2 and ALOS-PALSAR images. The methodological approach was
efficient at differentiating coffee agroforestry systems within forest landscapes, reported as
a common issue when using conventional satellite images. The study used multitemporal
imagery and a two-step classification approach using machine learning and a probabilistic
algorithm that ensured that each coffee agroforestry system was individually assessed in
the classification process. Their method achieved a 95% overall accuracy and, interestingly,
the authors found differences between the spectral indices and bands that better explained
the presence of each coffee agroforestry system.
Overall, the presented articles demonstrate the use of advanced tools and techniques
in remote sensing to address operational geographic problems in tropical forest mapping
and monitoring. The studies applied novel continuous change detection as well as ma-
chine learning and deep learning techniques for the time series analysis, classification and
modeling of reflectance values and textures metrics derived from optical, radar and LiDAR
data. Some of these studies also propose different conceptual frameworks for tropical forest
monitoring from local to landscape scales. The work here presented is the result of research
occurring in 17 institutions: Texas Tech University, Centro de Investigacion Cientifica de
Yucatan, Universidad de los Andes, Universidad Autonoma de Sinaloa, University of
California at Berkeley, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Colegio de la Frontera
Sur, Universidad Iberoamericana Ciudad de México, University of Freinburg, German
Aerospace Center, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, University of the Punjab, Kyoto
University, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Tokyo University of Agricul-
ture, Sabah Forestry Department and CONACYT. As of September of 2022, all articles have
accumulated more than 11,000 full-text views, which corroborates the quality and relevance
of this Special Issue.
We believe that all the contributions to this Special Issue, entitled “Novel Approaches
in Tropical Forest Mapping and Monitoring—Time for Operationalization I”, constitute
advanced remote sensing applications for tropical forest research. More importantly,
a theme of all these manuscripts is the urgency of ensuring that these methodological
approaches are useful for tropical forest conservation action. Therefore, we hope that
these contributions can inform tropical forest scientists and GIS/RS analysts on the best
practices for identifying and monitoring ecological patterns and anthropogenic threats
using state-of-the-art remote sensing data and techniques.

Funding: This research received no external funding.

Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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