Hamdan Omar

Determination of tree species using Worldview-2 data

Determining tree species has involved a lot of studies in the past decades. This is because of the availability of certain tree species to produce a high market value type of wood or that it can be use for meditational purposes. In the old days, conventional method of survey needs to be conducted to identify tree species. This type of method is rather hard to inaccessible area and time consuming. With the advancement of the satellite imaging technology, inaccessible area can be visualize from an satellite image. Worldview-2 image data is one of the proofs of the remote sensing evolving technology that can be used in a lot and varieties of studies. The available of the near infrared band makes it very useful in vegetation analysis. Based on this study that has been conducted to eight sample leaves taken from the Bukit Nanas Forest Reserve, Kuala Lumpur, spectral signature extraction was successfully conducted on the near infrared bandwidth due to its sensitivity towards vegetation. The different of about 5% between the signature extracted from the Spectra Vista GER 1500 and Worldview-2 data indicates that this image can be use successfully for vegetation analysis. However, it is very questionable whether high resolution can successfully delineate tree crown of a tree in a natural forest due to the complexity of the characteristics of the crown which is overlapping each other. This complexity is also a challenge for this study as to relate the spectral signature extracted with the accuracy of the segmentation and classification result. Furthermore it also will give some ideas to researchers as to figure what type of improvements can be made towards this study especially for natural forest.

Evaluating ecosystem services in primary linkage 1 of the central forest spine in Peninsular Malaysia using InVEST: preliminary results

The Improving Connectivity of the Central Forest Spine Project (IC-CFS) under the United Nations of Development Programme (UNDP) funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Malaysian Government (GOM) is aimed at increasing capacity at the Federal and State level to execute the CFS Master Plan. The study areas involved three linkage sites in Johor, Pahang and Perak. One of the activities require GIS-based ecosystem services valuation tools to be introduced for valuation of ecosystem services in the targeted forest landscapes. The Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) tools developed by the Natural Capital Project were chosen to be tested on the selected project sites particularly using 5 models, i.e. Carbon, Water Yield, Habitat Quality, Sediment Delivery Ratio and Recreation. Several of the models were used to determine ecosystem services and trade-offs between current land use pattern and land use options based on conservation scenarios for the study sites. This paper presents the preliminary outputs derived from each model using Primary Linkage 1 in Sungai Yu Pahang as the study site and discuss the potential of these tools in present and future usage in supporting protection and conservation efforts in CFS and other forestry landscapes of Peninsular Malaysia, not only bring benefits to wildlife protection and conservation, but to the surrounding commutes indirectly.

Individual tree crown segmentation in tropical peat swamp forest using airborne hyperspectral data

Abstract Individual tree crown segmentation is important step for deriving various information for fine-scale analysis of ecological process. However, only several studies have applied tree crown segmentation in tropical forest ecosystems, especially in mixed peat swamp forests. In this study, hyperspectral data were used to detect changes in the biochemical and biophysical characteristics, which are important factors for tree crown segmentation. Principal Component Analysis method was performed to investigate its influence on crown segmentation. Visually Selected PCs, 160 PCs and 160 Spectral Bands image were used and two segmentation techniques; Watershed Transformation and Region Growing segmentation were applied on those images. The highest accuracy was achieved for the crown segmentation is using Region Growing segmentation, based on 1:1 measurement, D value and RMSE value. The results obtained from 160 PCs image using region growing algorithm shows better accuracy with D value of 0.2 (80% accuracy, 20% error) and RMSE of 9.9 m2.

Watershed transformation for crown segmentation of Gonystylus Bancanus

High price of Gonystylus Bancanus tree resulting in logging activities in tropical peat swamp forest. This will lead to the declination of Gonystylus Bancanus tree species. Therefore, planning and management of this tree species is vital to ensure the sustainable use and living of this species. Classifying tree species in mixed tropical peat swamp forest has been challenging due to the similar spectral reflectance of neighboring trees. Most of studies for tree crown segmentation were done for temperate forest and rarely involved tropical forest especially tropical peat swamp forest. In this study, watershed transformation algorithm is applied as the method for automatic tree crown segmentation in tropical peat swamp forest. This method is implemented on hyperspectral image, HySpex VNIR 1600 at Pekan Forest Reserve, Pahang. Using Watershed Transformation, accuracy of 66% is achieved with 34% total error. The accuracy was measured using goodness of fit (D) value.

A tool for assessing ecological status of forest ecosystem

Managers and policy makers are beginning to appreciate the value of ecological monitoring of artificially regenerated forest especially in urban areas. With the advent of more advance technology in precision forestry, high resolution remotely sensed data e.g. hyperspectral and LiDAR are becoming available for rapid and precise assessment of the forest condition. An assessment of ecological status of forest ecosystem was developed and tested using FRIM campus forest stand. The forest consisted of three major blocks; the old growth artificially regenerated native species forests, naturally regenerated forest and recent planted forest for commercial timber and other forest products. Our aim is to assess the ecological status and its proximity to the mature old growth artificially regenerated stand. We used airborne LiDAR, orthophoto and thirty field sampling quadrats of 20x20m for ground verification. The parameter assessments were grouped into four broad categories: a. forest community level-composition, structures, function; landscape structures-road network and forest edges. A metric of parameters and rating criteria was introduced as indicators of the forest ecological status. We applied multi-criteria assessment to categorize the ecological status of the forest stand. The paper demonstrates the application of the assessment approach using FRIM campus forest as its first case study. Its potential application to both artificially and naturally regenerated forest in the variety of Malaysian landscape is discussed

Research and Development Activities Towards Sustainable Management of Mangroves in Peninsular Malaysia

Tsunami tragedy, in particular on 26 December 2004, has shown the importance of mangrove ecosystems in providing protection against strong waves and winds. Since then, research and development (R&D) activities have been intensified mainly to stabilize shoreline areas that could potentially be affected by tsunami in the future. In relation, a Task Force Committee of Planting Mangroves and Other Suitable Species Operation on Shorelines of the Country was formed by the Malaysian Government led by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment in 2005. Under this task force, a technical committee on Research and Development (JTR&D) was formed under the chairmanship of the Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM). Many R&D activities were conducted by this JTR&D covering aspects of mangrove areas assessment, producing planting materials, planting in severe erosion areas, control of pests and diseases of the planted mangroves and non-mangroves species, monitoring of wave energy and carbon stock assessment. Some of the R&D activities were completed, however, few are continued to obtain more concrete and long-term data. This chapter briefly elaborates outputs of the completed R&D activities. Detail of the each project can be referred in separate published materials. The outputs could significantly contribute towards sustainable management of mangroves in Peninsular Malaysia and may be applied in other mangroves elsewhere in this country.