A Novel Spatial Simulation Method for Mapping the Urban Forest Carbon Density in Southern China by the Google Earth Engine

Urban forest is an important component of terrestrial ecosystems and is highly related to global climate change. However, because of complex city landscapes, deriving the spatial distribution of urban forest carbon density and conducting accuracy assessments are difficult. This study proposes a novel spatial simulation method, optimized geographically weighted logarithm regression (OGWLR), using Landsat 8 data acquired by the Google Earth Engine (GEE) and field survey data to map the forest carbon density of Shenzhen city in southern China. To verify the effectiveness of the novel method, multiple linear regression (MLR), k-nearest neighbors (kNN), random forest (RF) and geographically weighted regression (GWR) models were established for comparison. The results showed that OGWLR achieved the highest coefficient of determination (R2 = 0.54) and the lowest root mean square error (RMSE = 13.28 Mg/ha) among all estimation models. In addition, OGWLR achieved a more consistent spatial distribution of carbon density with the actual situation. The carbon density of the forests in the study area was large in the central and western regions and coastal areas and small in the building and road areas. Therefore, this method can provide a new reference for urban forest carbon density estimation and mapping.