Forest biomass is closely related to carbon sequestration capacity and can reflect the level of forest management. This study utilizes four machine learning algorithms, namely Multivariate Stepwise Regression (MSR), K-Nearest Neighbors (k-NN), Artificial Neural Network (ANN), and Random Forest (RF), to estimate forest aboveground biomass (AGB) in Chenzhou City, Hunan Province, China. In addition, a canopy height model, constructed from a digital surface model (DSM) derived from Sentinel-1 Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) and an ICESat-2-corrected SRTM DEM, is incorporated to quantify its impact on the accuracy of AGB estimation. The results indicate the following: (1) The incorporation of multi-source remote sensing data significantly improves the accuracy of AGB estimation, among which the RF model performs the best (R2 = 0.69, RMSE = 24.26 t·ha−1) compared with the single-source model. (2) The canopy height model (CHM) obtained from InSAR-LiDAR effectively alleviates the signal saturation effect of optical and SAR data in high-biomass areas (>200 t·ha−1). When FCH is added to the RF model combined with multi-source remote sensing data, the R2 of the AGB estimation model is improved to 0.74. (3) In 2018, AGB in Chenzhou City shows clear spatial heterogeneity, with a mean of 51.87 t·ha−1. Biomass increases from the western hilly part (32.15–68.43 t·ha−1) to the eastern mountainous area (89.72–256.41 t·ha−1), peaking in Dongjiang Lake National Forest Park (256.41 t·ha−1). This study proposes a comprehensive feature integration framework that combines red-edge spectral indices for capturing vegetation physiological status, SAR-derived texture metrics for assessing canopy structural heterogeneity, and canopy height metrics to characterize forest three-dimensional structure. This integrated approach enables the robust and accurate monitoring of carbon storage in subtropical forests.
Wu et al. (2025) studied this question.