A Separable Bootstrap Variance Estimation Algorithm for Hierarchical Model‐Based Inference of Forest Aboveground Biomass Using Data From NASA's GEDI and Landsat Missions

Svetlana Saarela, Sean P. Healey, Zhiqiang Yang, Bjørn‐Eirik Roald, Paul L. Patterson, Terje Gobakken, Erik Næsset, Zhengyang Hou, Ronald E. McRoberts and Göran Ståhl

Environmetrics, 2025, vol. 36, issue 1

Abstract: The hierarchical model‐based (HMB) statistical method is currently applied in connection with NASA's Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) mission for assessing forest aboveground biomass (AGB) in areas lacking a sufficiently large number of GEDI footprints for employing hybrid inference. This study focuses on variance estimation using a bootstrap procedure that separates the computations into parts, thus considerably reducing the computational time required and making bootstrapping a viable option in this context. The procedure we propose uses a theoretical decomposition of the HMB variance into two parts. Through this decomposition, each variance component can be estimated separately and simultaneously. For demonstrating the proposed procedure, we applied a square‐root‐transformed ordinary least squares (OLS) model, and parametric bootstrapping, in the first modeling step of HMB. In the second step, we applied a random forest model and pairwise bootstrapping. Monte Carlo simulations showed that the proposed variance estimator is approximately unbiased. The study was performed on an artificial copula‐generated population that mimics forest conditions in Oregon, USA, using a dataset comprising AGB, GEDI, and Landsat variables.

Date: 2025
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/env.2883

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:envmet:v:36:y:2025:i:1:n:e2883

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=1180-4009

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Environmetrics from John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().