Analysis and error assessment on the use of segmentation for estimating forest structural characteristics from lidar and radar

This paper investigates the ability of radar image segmentation to produce meaningful, structurally homogenous objects with respect to lidar-derived forest metrics. A comparative approach is taken to determine if radar-derived segments perform better in this respect than arbitrary, square segments or landcover-derived segments. It is found that segmentation of UAVSAR co- and cross-polarization backscatter magnitudes results in increased lidar homogeneity on the segment level relative to the arbitrary and landcover segmentations.