Abstract
We studied the effectiveness of coherence information for monitoring deforestation in tropical rain forests. First, the changing patterns of SAR backscattering intensity of JERS-1 SAR data in a tropical forest region in Sumatra island were investigated and it was found that the backscatter changes are rather complicated than those estimated from conventional studies. Then the coherence images by several JERS-1 SAR interferometric pairs were presented and the relationship between coherence and backscatter changing patterns was discussed. In addition, the accuracy for identifying deforested areas was assessed for the combined use of coherence with backscattering intensity. These results proved the effectiveness of the combined use of coherence for identifying deforested areas compared with the use of intensity only.
