• Indu Indirabai
• M.V. Harindranathan Nair
• Jaishanker. R. Nair
• Rama Rao Nidamanuri

Biophysical characterisation and phenological analysis in heterogeneous forests is a challenging effort due to highly complex and biodiverse tropical forest ecosystems. Apart from the traditional and multispectral remote sensing technologies like Landsat imageries, MODIS etc, high resolution Sentinel imagery can contribute significantly in understanding the tropical forest ecosystems phenology, global carbon cycle, productivity of the forests and carbon budgets. Here we propose a methodological approach by the integration of space borne LiDAR data with the Sentinel -2 imagery for the accurate estimation of the biophysical parameters and understanding the phenological patterns in the Western Ghats of India. The structural parameters estimated from the LiDAR data and the spectral parameters from the Sentinel-2 imagery are integrated, and the resultant obtained is processed by means of nonparametric regression-based Support vector machine algorithm. The results obtained are validated and are found to have strong correlation with ground measurements. Additional vegetation parameters because of the spectral enrichment and dense time series Sentinel-2 imagery contribute in understanding significant information of forests including degradation, health status and the complex ecosystems. The study also has the advantage of understanding the understory vegetation conditions of the forests ecosystem which contribute an important help for forests management and practices.

ICESat, GLAS, LiDAR, Sentinel-2, Support Vector Machine method, Phenology, Biomass, Biophysical parameters.

"Biophysical Characterisation of Heterogeneous Forest and Phenological Study In Western Ghats of India by the Integration of Sentinel-2 Data with Space Borne Lidar Data", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 3, page no.768-777, March-2019, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1903215.pdf

"Biophysical Characterisation of Heterogeneous Forest and Phenological Study In Western Ghats of India by the Integration of Sentinel-2 Data with Space Borne Lidar Data", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 3, page no. pp768-777, March-2019, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1903215.pdf