arXiv Machine Learning

Integrating national forest inventory, airborne lidar, and satellite imagery for wall-to-wall mapping of forest structure with computer vision

arXiv:2606. 20291v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Remote sensing is increasingly relied upon to deliver actionable science for forest and wildfire risk management across large landscapes.

arXiv Machine Learning
Jul 31

Foundation-Model Earth Representations Enable Regional-Scale Forest Aboveground Biomass Monitoring Across the Northeastern United States

arXiv:2607. 27217v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Forest aboveground biomass (AGB) is a critical indicator of ecosystem productivity and terrestrial carbon storage, yet regional carbon monitoring remains constrained by the sparse spatial and temporal availability of field inventories and airborne structural measurements.

By Shashika Lamahewage, Chandi Witharana
arXiv AI
Jul 14

Uncertainty Quantification for EO Regression Tasks: Building Height, Tree Canopy Height and Above-ground Biomass Estimation

arXiv:2607. 11412v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Earth Observation regression tasks such as building height, canopy height, and above-ground biomass estimation underpin critical applications in urban planning, forest monitoring, and climate policy, where both accuracy and reliability are critical.

By Ritu Yadav, Andrea Nascetti, Yifang Ban
arXiv Computer Vision
Sep 17

Rapid Loss of the Sierra Nevada's Largest Trees Driven by Fire

A deep learning model (U‑Net‑ID) mapped 6.5 million large trees (crown area ≥ 100 m²) across 78.7 % of the Sierra Nevada Floristic Province using sub‑meter aerial imagery from 2020. The spatial distribution of these trees correlated with elevation, temperature, and precipitation. From 2020 to 2025, Sentinel‑2 time series and BFAST breakpoint analysis revealed that wildfires were the dominant driver of large‑tree mortality, killing 10 % of all large trees, especially during the extreme 2020‑2021 fire seasons.

By Fabien H. Wagner, Dan J. Dixon, Christopher W. Woodall, Mayumi C. M. Hirye, Felipe Saad, Griffin Carter, Ricardo Dalagnol, Lorena Alves, Cynthia Creze, Stephen C. Hagen, Zhihua Liu, Christopher Mihiar, Adugna Mullissa, Le Bienfaiteur Sagang Takougoum, Bryan Shaddy, Yan Yang, Dafeng Zhang, Sassan Saatchi
arXiv Computer Vision
Sep 22

M3GA-Wild: A Large-Scale Dataset and Benchmark for Multi-Modal Multi-session Ground-to-Aerial Place Recognition in Forests

M3GA-Wild is a new benchmark for multi-modal, multi-session ground-to-aerial place recognition in forests, combining synchronized RGB imagery and LiDAR from ground traversals with high‑resolution aerial imagery and multi‑altitude LiDAR over 370 hectares. The dataset includes accurate geo‑referenced 6‑DoF poses and spans 36 km of forest traversals, enabling systematic evaluation of visual, LiDAR, cross‑modal, and multi‑modal methods. Baseline experiments show LiDAR outperforms vision‑only approaches under severe viewpoint changes, while current multi‑modal fusion offers limited gains due to poor cross‑modal alignment, highlighting challenges in cross‑platform localisation and domain gaps.

By Ethan Griffiths, Maryam Haghighat, Simon Denman, Clinton Fookes, Milad Ramezani
arXiv Machine Learning
Aug 19

Spatially explicit feature importance for building height estimation using research-access high-resolution SAR and optical sensors

The study presents a method for estimating building heights in a large Brazilian city using freely available satellite data, including TerraSAR-X StripMap, PlanetScope, and Sentinel-1. A geographically weighted random forest model achieved an RMSE of 5.34 m and an R² of 0.756 against LiDAR reference data, with local feature importance varying by building type and context. The results highlight that no single sensor dominates across all scenarios, offering guidance for selecting satellite-derived products in different urban settings.

By Guilherme Iablonovski, Pierre-Louis Frison, Tatiana Silva da Silva
arXiv Computer Vision
Aug 28

Mapping Woody Vegetation from Multi-Source Imagery and Prediction Fusion for Enhanced Data Efficiency and Accuracy

The paper presents a framework that enhances deep‑learning tree‑cover mapping in New South Wales by fusing multiple imagery sources and normalizing image quality. It introduces an image‑composition technique that removes defects and a prediction‑fusion method that reduces reliance on any single image, together cutting errors by 38.2 % and 53.6 % respectively. Label transfer across diverse imagery further boosts data efficiency, yielding error reductions of 28.1 %–76.2 % and a 13‑fold decrease in performance variability across dates.

By Kal Backman, Jared Wood, Adam Roff