Lidar-Based aboveground Biomass Estimations for the Maya Archaeological Site of Yaxnohcah, Campeche, Mexico

Summary

This is an abstract from the "New and Emerging Perspectives on the Bajo el Laberinto Region of the Maya Lowlands, Part 1" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This study introduces a method for estimating aboveground biomass (AGB) in contemporary tropical forests near archaeological sites using lidar technology. Accurate AGB estimates are crucial for assessing wood resources available to the ancient Maya for city development. We propose a lidar processing model for the Yaxnohcah archaeological site's surrounding forest. Tropical forests exhibit diverse species distribution, necessitating consideration of this variation for precise AGB estimates. We identified four vegetation communities through Sentinel-2 satellite image classification and conducted field surveys within 73 500 m2 transects. AGB estimates for transects required diameter, height, and wood density measurements. Linear-derived models provided the relationship between each vegetation type’s field data and lidar statistics. Predicted AGB values aligned with field measurements but varied between vegetation types: 83 Mg/ha for lowland forest, 178 for transition forest, and 215 for upland forest. These findings facilitated the creation of a wall-to-wall AGB map based on vegetation classes, enhancing archaeological research on past land use. The vegetation classification also revealed a spatial relationship between vegetation communities and the distribution of archaeological features in the ancient city of Yaxnohcah.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• New and Emerging Perspectives on the Bajo el Laberinto Region of the Maya Lowlands, Part 1   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39656.0