Participative forest in-situ measurements for biomass mapping in satellite images over Durango State, Mexico

Citizen Science, propelled by the growing popularity of smartphones, can provide valuable reference information for remote sensing image analysis. We demonstrate that the Relasphone, a biomass measuring application previously developed and tested in boreal forests of Finland, can be adapted to temperate-cold pine forests in Durango State, Mexico. Relasphone measurements were in good agreement with reference data over 55 plots (R² = 0.94), and have been used to produce a biomass map over Durango from a Landsat 8 image. The results suggest the Relasphone can be easily deployed in other biomes.