Operational multi-sensor design for forest carbon monitoring to support REDD+ in Kalimantan, Indonesia
Abstract
Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have been requested to establish robust and transparent national forest monitoring systems (NFMS) that use a combination of remote sensing and ground-based forest carbon inventory approaches to estimate anthropogenic forest-related greenhouse gas emissions and removals, reducing uncertainties as far as possible. A country's NFMS should also be used for data collection to inform the assessment of national or subnational forest reference emission levels and/or forest reference levels (RELs/RLs). In this way, the NFMS forms the link between historical assessments and current/future assessments, enabling consistency in the data and information to support the implementation of REDD+ activities in countries. The creation of a reliable, transparent, and comprehensive NFMS is currently limited by a dearth of relevant data that are accurate, low-cost, and spatially resolved at subnational scales. We are developing, evaluating, and validating several critical components of an NFMS in Kalimantan, Indonesia, focusing on the use of LiDAR and radar imagery for improved carbon stock and forest degradation information. Our goal is to evaluate sensor and platform tradeoffs systematically against in situ investments, as well as provide detailed tracking and characterization of uncertainty in a cost-benefit framework. Kalimantan is an ideal area to evaluate the use of remote sensing methods because measuring forest carbon stocks and their human caused changes with a high degree of certainty in areas of dense tropical forests has proven to be difficult. While the proposed NFMS components are being developed at the subnational scale for Kalimantan, we are targeting these methods for applicability across broader geographies and for implementation at various scales. Our intention is for this research to advance the state of the art of Measuring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) system methodologies in ways that are both technical and operational. First, because a primary focus of carbon monitoring systems, especially in developing countries, is on cost-effectiveness, our analysis of optimal inputs of information from various satellite, airborne, and in situ measurements will provide practical information that countries can use to consider the tradeoffs. Second, because quantifying and understanding uncertainty is critical both in an Earth science research context and with regard to payment for ecosystem services, our development of reusable methods for tracking and evaluating uncertainty within a carbon monitoring system will provide a framework for stakeholders and researchers to understand and minimize errors across MRV components.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2013
- Bibcode:
- 2013AGUFM.B31B0390B
- Keywords:
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- 0428 BIOGEOSCIENCES Carbon cycling