Variables Selection for Aboveground Biomass Estimations Using Satellite Data: A Comparison between Relative Importance Approach and Stepwise Akaike’s Information Criterion

It is still a major challenge to select appropriate variables from remote sensing sensors, which implicates finding reliable selection methods that can maximize the performance of chosen variables in regression models. In this study, we compare the performance of stepwise variable selection based on Akaike information criterion and an approach that integrates relative importance techniques and the decomposition criteria of R 2 using two different remote sensing data: SPOT-5 and RapidEye images, with the purpose of selecting suitable variables in multiple linear regression models to estimate aboveground biomass. The obtained accuracy of the regression models was evaluated by triple cross-validation. We carried out this study in a mixed pine–oak forest of central Mexico where intensive wood extraction occurs and therefore different levels of degradation are found. We estimated aboveground biomass from field inventory data at the plot level (n = 52) and used well-established allometric equations. The results showed that a better fit was obtained with the explanatory variables selected from the RapidEye image ( R 2 = 0.437 with stepwise variable selection based on the Akaike information criterion approach and R 2 = 0.420 with relative importance techniques) and the approach that integrates the relative importance can generate better regression models to estimate forest biomass with a reduced number of variables and less error in the estimates.