Mangrove forests are one of the most productive and carbon dense ecosystems that are only found at tidally inundated coastal areas. Forest canopy height is an important measure for modeling carbon and biomass dynamics, as well as land cover change. By taking advantage of the flat terrain and dense canopy cover, the present study derived digital surface models (DSMs) using stereo‐photogrammetric techniques on high‐resolution spaceborne imagery (HRSI) for southern Mozambique. A mean‐weighted ground surface elevation factor was subtracted from the HRSI DSM to accurately estimate the canopy height in mangrove forests in southern Mozambique. The mean and H100 tree height measured in both the field and with the digital canopy model provided the most accurate results with a vertical error of 1.18–1.84 m, respectively. Distinct patterns were identified in the HRSI canopy height map that could not be discerned from coarse shuttle radar topography mission canopy maps even though the mode and distribution of canopy heights were similar over the same area. Through further investigation, HRSI DSMs have the potential of providing a new type of three‐dimensional dataset that could serve as calibration/validation data for other DSMs generated from spaceborne datasets with much larger global coverage. HSRI DSMs could be used in lieu of Lidar acquisitions for canopy height and forest biomass estimation, and be combined with passive optical data to improve land cover classifications.

中文翻译：

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非洲蓝碳生态系统中的高分辨率森林冠层高度估计。

红树林是生产力最高，碳密度最高的生态系统之一，仅在被潮汐淹没的沿海地区发现。森林冠层高度是模拟碳和生物量动态以及土地覆盖变化的重要指标。通过利用平坦的地形和密集的树冠覆盖，本研究利用立体摄影测量技术在莫桑比克南部的高分辨率星载图像（HRSI）上得出了数字表面模型（DSM）。从HRSI DSM中减去了平均加权地面高程因子，以准确估算莫桑比克南部红树林的冠层高度。在野外和数字顶篷模型中测得的平均树高和H100树高分别提供了最准确的结果，垂直误差分别为1.18-1.84 m。在HRSI冠层高度图中确定了不同的模式，即使在同一地区，冠层高度的模式和分布相似，也无法从粗线穿梭雷达地形任务冠层地图中辨别出不同的模式。通过进一步的研究，HRSI DSM有潜力提供一种新型的三维数据集，该数据集可以用作从具有更大全球覆盖范围的星载数据集生成的其他DSM的校准/验证数据。HSRI DSM可以代替激光雷达采集进行冠层高度和森林生物量估计，并与无源光学数据结合以改善土地覆被分类。