The Effect of Different Cluster Sampling Schemes in Estimating the Quantitative Characteristics of Zagros Forests Using Sentinel 2 Sensor Images

Gathering accurate information for statistics requires high cost and precision. The time factor is also one of the important issues that should be seriously considered in statistics. Therefore, the use of sampling methods and satellite images will be a good alternative for this purpose. In the present study, the aim of the effect of different cluster sampling schemes in estimating the quantitative characteristics of the traditional forests of Olad Ghobad in Koohdasht township, Lorestan province using Sentinel 2 sensor images. To estimate the studied characteristics, 150 clusters in the form of six designs (triangular, square, star 1, linear, L-shaped, star 2) were implemented in the region. Then, in each subplot, the characteristics of the number and area of the tree canopy were measured. Afterimage preprocessing and appropriate image processing (principal component analysis, texture analysis, and different spectral ratios to create important plant indices), the corresponding digital values of the ground sample plots are extracted from the spectral bands and used as independent variables. Modeling was performed using nonparametric methods of random forest, support vector machine, and nearest neighbor. The results showed that the average density per hectare was 51 and the canopy area was 32.94%. The diagram of the mean squares of the error of the training and test data against the number of trees for the characteristic number per hectare and canopy showed that the optimal number of trees was obtained at approximately 75 and 350 points. The results of validation according to the percentage of squared mean squared error showed that for both density and canopy surface characteristics of random forest algorithm with linear and double star sampling designs with the squared percentage of mean squared error respectively (46.00%) and (10.44%) and Bias (-0.02%, 2.82%) along with cluster sampling designs linear and double star, respectively, had better performance in modeling. In general, the results showed that the use of different cluster sampling schemes, nonparametric modeling methods, and Sentinel2 sensor images can better performance estimate the quantitative characteristics of Zagros forests.