Global Forest Change Map Published Online (VIDEO)

A University of Maryland-led, multi-organizational team has created the first high-resolution global map of forest extent, loss and gain. This free resource greatly improves the ability to understand human and naturally-induced forest changes and the local to global implications of these changes on environmental, economic and other natural and societal systems, members of the team say.

In a new study, the team of 15 university, Google and government researchers reports a global loss of 2.3 million square kilometers (888,000 square miles) of forest between 2000 and 2012 and a gain of 800,000 square kilometers (309,000 square miles) of new forest.

Their study, published online on November 14 in the journal Science, documents the new database, including a number of key findings on global forest change. For example, the tropics were the only climate domain to exhibit a trend, with forest loss increasing by 2,101 square kilometers (811 square miles) per year. Brazil's well-documented reduction in deforestation during the last decade was more than offset by increasing forest loss in Indonesia, Malaysia, Paraguay, Bolivia, Zambia, Angola and elsewhere.

"This is the first map of forest change that is globally consistent and locally relevant," says University of Maryland Professor of Geographical Sciences Matthew Hansen, team leader and corresponding author on the Science paper.

"Losses or gains in forest cover shape many important aspects of an ecosystem, including climate regulation, carbon storage, biodiversity and water supplies, but until now there has not been a way to get detailed, accurate, satellite-based and readily available data on forest cover change from local to global scales," Hansen says.

Check out the 2000-2012 global forest cover change here.

VIDEO of the presentation of Dr. Matthew Hansen


SOURCE University of Maryland Press Release

Read More

Measuring And Mapping Biomass In Northern Hemisphere Forests

 The biomass of the northern hemisphere’s forests has been mapped with greater precision than ever before thanks to satellites, improving our understanding of the carbon cycle and our prediction of Earth’s future climate.

Accurately measuring forest biomass and how it varies are key elements for taking stock of forests and vegetation. Since forests assist in removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, mapping forest biomass is also important for understanding the global carbon cycle.

In particular, northern forests – including forest soil – store a third more carbon stocks per hectare as tropical forests, making them one of the most significant carbon stores in the world.

The boreal forest ecosystem – exclusive to the northern hemisphere – spans Russia, northern Europe, Canada and Alaska, with interrelated habitats of forests, lakes, wetlands, rivers and tundra.

 With processing software drawing in stacks of radar images from ESA’s Envisat satellite, scientists have created a map of the whole northern hemisphere’s forest biomass in higher resolution than ever before – each pixel represents 1 km on the ground.

“Single Envisat radar images taken at a wavelength of approximately 5 cm cannot provide the sensitivity needed to map the composition of forests with high density,” said Maurizio Santoro from Gamma Remote Sensing.

“Combining a large number of radar datasets, however, yields a greater sensitivity and gives a more accurate information on what’s below the forest canopy.”

About 70 000 Envisat radar images from October 2009 to February 2011 were fed into  this new, ‘hyper-temporal’ approach to create the pan-boreal map for 2010.

This is the first radar-derived output on biomass for the whole northern zone using a single approach – and it is just one of the products from the Biomasar-II project.

 Sponsored by ESA, the project also exploited Envisat archives to generate regional maps for 2005.

The future Sentinel-1 mission will ensure the continuity of this kind of radar data at large, but the dedicated Biomass satellite was recently selected to become ESA’s seventh Earth Explorer mission. The mission is set to provide an easier and more accurate way to monitor this precious resource regularly.

The Biomass satellite will complement the Biomasar results, especially for tropical regions.

“Even our new, hyper-temporal approach is not able to penetrate dense multistorey canopies of rainforests with Sentinel-1 or Envisat’s radars. Here, longer wavelengths are indeed needed,” says Prof. Christiane Schmullius from the University Jena, Biomasar coordinator.

The Biomass satellite will deliver, for the first time from space, radar measurements at a wavelength of around 70 cm to delve below the treetops. It will also monitor forest disturbance and regrowth.

SOURCE ESA

Read More

Black Forest Fire Maps and Datasets: Interactive Tool

Black Forest Fire Maps! GISi has launched a detailed public information map tool, powered by Esri and created and maintained by GISi developer Joe Pfeffer, to help aid in disaster assistance for the Black Forest Fire that has spread in parts of central Colorado. In addition to zoom and pan capabilities, the interactive map provides location-based information on the following:

    Disaster assistance centers
    Public evacuation shelters
    Food donation sites
    Distribution centers
    RVs/campers sites
    Food assistance sites
    Mail pickup areas
    Reduced rate lodging
    Small animal shelters
    Large/exotic animal shelters (and indicates whether it’s open or full)
    Structure status – whether homes are partially damaged or destroyed
    Evacuation areas – mandatory, voluntary, and pre-evacuation
    Current wind speeds
    Current fire perimeters

GISi hopes users will find the map to be a useful resource for all in need of public data regarding this natural disaster.  The interactive map can be found at blackforestfire.gisinc.com and will be updated as further information becomes publically available.

Read More

AToMS or Airborne Taxonomic Mapping System Unveiled

Researchers from the Carnegie Institution are rolling out results from the new Airborne Taxonomic Mapping System, or AToMS, for the first time at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) meetings in San Francisco. The groundbreaking technology and its scientific observations are uncovering a previously invisible ecological world.

AToMS, which launched in June 2011, uniquely combines laser and spectral imaging instrumentation onboard a twin-engine aircraft to derive simultaneous measurements of an ecosystem's chemistry, structure, biomass, and biodiversity. AToMS includes a unique imaging spectrometer implemented by Carnegie scientists in close collaboration with engineers at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In its inaugural year of operation, AToMS mapped tens of millions of acres of ecosystems in California, Panama, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Peruvian Andes, and the Amazon basin. New results presented at AGU have applications ranging from mitigating climate change to forest conservation and ecosystem management.

One AGU report led by Asner assessed the impacts of the 2010 mega-drought in the Amazon basin on the forest's structure, carbon stocks and biodiversity. Because the frequency of Amazonian droughts is predicted to increase in the future, understanding how the 2010 drought changed the forest is critically important to predicting the future of the region. Using the Carnegie Airborne Observatory's (CAO) AToMS system, Asner and his team revealed huge areas of drought-stressed vegetation in the Amazon, finding previously unknown impacts ranging in scale from individual branches to whole canopies among millions of rainforest trees.

Another CAO study led by Mark Higgins considered how Panamanian forests are patterned by the unique geology of the region. The results help to explain why Panamanian ecosystems remain some of the most biologically diverse in Central America. And a report by Stanford graduate student Dana Chadwick used AToMS to examine the terrain hidden beneath the Amazon rainforest canopy. Three-dimensional mapping revealed how the Amazon environment promotes the co-existence of so many rainforest species.

Chadwick summed it up: "It's like taking an x-ray of an entire landscape, plant by plant, and each tiny hill. We can see how just a one or two foot change in ground elevation can create a new habitat for rainforest species, with measurable effects on the rainforest biomass."

Other topics covered in the ten reports presented at the conference range from how California Mediterranean ecosystems are assembled, to the important role that streams play in helping forests to store global-warming gases such as carbon dioxide.

Woody Turner, NASA Program Scientist for Biological Diversity commented, "The combination of an imaging spectrometer and a laser scanning instrument inside CAO AToMS is proving to be an ideal solution to the challenge of remotely sensing biodiversity. AToMS gives us -- on one airborne platform -- instruments capable of simultaneously parsing the composition, function, and structure of ecosystems."

Asner agreed: "Probably the most profound scientific advances revolve around directly measuring biodiversity in some of the most critically endangered regions of our planet."

He specifically pointed to the reports led by Claire Baldeck and Jean-Baptiste Féret, two Carnegie scientists working with the airborne technology to map plant diversity in African savannas and Amazonian rainforests. Baldeck reported on the holy grail of ecology -- finding how landscapes evolve to support different assemblages of plants. Féret, meanwhile, showed that subtle variation in Amazon forest soils and terrain impart huge differences in overall biological diversity -- a measurement made possible for the first time by CAO AToMS.

Source: Carnegie Institution (2012, December 4). Researchers debut revolutionary biosphere mapping capability. ScienceDaily. Retrieved December 7, 2012, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2012/12/121204112458.htm
Via Science Daily

Read More

Forest Carbon Mapping with Airborne LiDAR

Check out these two new papers on forest carbon mapping with airborne LiDAR.

- Joseph Mascaro, Matteo Detto, Gregory P. Asner, Helene C. Muller-Landau. Evaluating uncertainty in mapping forest carbon with airborne LiDAR. Remote Sensing of Environment (2011), doi:10.1016/j.rse.2011.07.019

Abstract
Airborne LiDAR is increasingly used to map carbon stocks in tropical forests, but our understanding of mapping errors is constrained by the spatial resolution (i.e., plot size) used to calibrate LiDAR with field data (typically 0.1–0.36 ha). Reported LiDAR errors range from 17 to 40 Mg C ha− 1, but should be lower at coarser resolutions because relative errors are expected to scale with (plot area)–1/2. We tested this prediction empirically using a 50-ha plot with mapped trees, allowing an assessment of LiDAR prediction errors at multiple spatial resolutions. We found that errors scaled approximately as expected, declining by 38% (compared to 40% predicted from theory) from 0.36- to 1-ha resolution. We further reduced errors at all spatial resolutions by accounting for tree crowns that are bisected by plot edges (not typically done in forestry), and collectively show that airborne LiDAR can map carbon stocks with 10% error at 1-ha resolution — a level comparable to the use of field plots alone.

- Gregory P. Asner, Joseph Mascaro, Helene C. Muller-Landau, Ghislain Vieilledent, Romuald Vaudry, Maminiaina Rasamoelina, Jefferson S. Hall, Michiel van Breugel (2011). A universal airborne LiDAR approach for tropical forest carbon mapping. Oecologia DOI 10.1007/s00442-011-2165-z

Abstract
Airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) is fast turning the corner from demonstration technology to a key tool for assessing carbon stocks in tropical forests. With its ability to penetrate tropical forest canopies and detect three-dimensional forest structure, LiDAR may prove to be a major component of international strategies to measure and account for carbon emissions from and uptake by tropical forests. To date, however, basic ecological information such as height–diameter allometry and stand-level wood density have not been mechanistically incorporated into methods for mapping forest carbon at regional and global scales. A better incorporation of these structural patterns in forests may reduce the considerable time needed to calibrate airborne data with ground-based forest inventory plots, which presently necessitate exhaustive measurements of tree diameters and heights, as well as tree identifications for wood density estimation. Here, we develop a new approach that can facilitate rapid LiDAR calibration with minimal field data. Throughout four tropical regions (Panama, Peru, Madagascar, and Hawaii), we were able to predict aboveground carbon density estimated in field inventory plots using a single universal LiDAR model (r 2 = 0.80, RMSE = 27.6 Mg C ha−1). This model is comparable in predictive power to locally calibrated models, but relies on limited inputs of basal area and wood density information for a given region, rather than on traditional plot inventories. With this approach, we propose to radically decrease the time required to calibrate airborne LiDAR data and thus increase the output of high-resolution carbon maps, supporting tropical forest conservation and climate mitigation policy. Download free PDF.

Read More

GIS Technology for Russian Forest Resources

JSFC Sistema (“Sistema”) (LSE: SSA), the largest diversified public financial corporation in Russia and the CIS, today announces that Sistema, and the Federal Forestry Agency have signed a cooperation agreement for the implementation of geographic information systems (GIS) and technologies, designed by Sistema’s subsidiaries, for the protection, conservation and reforestation, as well as the coordinated utilization of forest resources.

The cooperation agreement, which is not legally binding, defines the general intentions of both parties and the principles for cooperation.

Mikhail Shamolin, President and Chief executive officer of Sistema, commented: “The effects of devastating wildfires last year proved that it is necessary to upgrade forestry management and monitoring systems with modern technology. Sistema has a strong track record and broad technological expertise and we are keen to share it with the Federal Forestry Agency.”

Victor Maslyakov, Head of Federal Forestry Agency, added: “The Government has set important tasks for the Forestry Agency for protection, conservation and reforestation. In order to achieve these objectives, we need to make significant technological breakthroughs using modern technologies and innovations. We are delighted at the prospects of our future collaboration with a high-tech company such as Sistema. The introduction of advanced information technologies in the forestry sector is the key to effective forest management.”

Read More

John Cain Carter: Balancing Ranching and Ecosystems in Amazon

A native of San Antonio, Texas, John Cain Carter currently ranches with his in-laws in Mato Grosso, Brazil. After witnessing the unfathomable speed at which the Amazon rainforest is being cleared, John formed the “Alliance of the Land” conservation group to help slow the destruction of the rainforest and create a sustainable balance between agriculture and the rainforest ecosystem.

Video 1:
John Carter, a 1993 graduate of TCU's Ranch Management program and founder of Alianca da Terra, is interviewed by TCU Magazine Kathryn Hopper about his efforts to save the Brazilian rain forest and encourage Brazilian ranchers and other food producers to practice sustainable agriculture.


Video 2: John Carter on David Letterman

Read More

Land suitable for forest restoration identified

1.5 billion hectares (5.8 million square miles) of land are suitable for forest restoration, according a new analysis by the Global Partnership on Forest Landscape Restoration, a partnership between the World Resources Institute, South Dakota State University, and IUCN.

The global map shows where forests have "great potential for recovery", including great swathes of deforested landscapes (about two-thirds of the opportunity) across Africa, Brazil, and Indonesia as well as degraded forests and woodlands. The analysis breaks opportunities into two classes: wide-scale and mosiac (or patchy) forest generation.

The study find that most of the opportunities occur not in frontier areas where deforestation is presently occurring, but in regions where forest degradation and deforestation have already occurred. It notes that restoration opportunities vary depending on local conditions.

"These areas should not all be restored in the same fashion," states the World Resources Institute (WRI) on its web site. "There is no one-size-fits-all solution. Each forest landscape is unique and needs its own restoration design which responds in a balanced way to societal preferences and needs."

"Lands that are currently used for crop production or grazing, for example, are not suitable for wide-scale restoration. They may, however, offer opportunities for restoration in mixed land-use mosaics. Many historically deforested areas belong to this category."

The map was released as world leaders met in Cancun for climate talks. One of the hottest areas of discussion in Cancun was the so-called reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) mechanism, which proposes to pay tropical countries for protecting, restoring, and "sustainably managing" their forests. The conference ended with an agreement to pursue REDD.

Some countries are already seeing forest regeneration. Costa Rica and Vietnam are among the nations that have seen recovery of forest cover outside industrial plantations.

The Global Partnership on Forest Landscape Restoration map is based on relatively coarse (1x1 km) remote sensing data and considers current land cover, land use, population density and other factors. It does not incorporate tenure arrangements and land-use dynamics, which could complicate forest recovery and restoration.

[via] For more information, please visit wri.org/restoring-forests.

Read More

Brazil 2010 Amazon Deforestation Data Shows Rate Declining

Deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon declined 14 percent from August 2009 to July 2010, reaching the lowest rates ever recorded for the second consecutive year, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced in Brasília. Satellite images analyzed by Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE) show that an estimated 6,450 square kilometers of forests were cleared in the 12-month period, bringing rates to their lowest since monitoring started in 1988.

The record-breaking decrease represents a major contribution to reducing Brazil's greenhouse gas emissions, as global negotiations progress at the 16th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP16), currently underway in Cancun, Mexico.

"We are fulfilling the commitment we have made in Brazil. We will fulfill it because it's our obligation to do so," said President Lula. He also announced new integrated policies to promote sustainable development in the Amazon region, alongside the first results from Brazil's deforestation monitoring system in the Atlantic Forest. "We are committed to advancing the reduction in deforestation, improving monitoring and creating the conditions for sustainable development in the region," said Minister of Environment Izabella Teixeira.

According to the Ministry of Environment, the successive drops in Amazon deforestation rates are a result of the Plan for Amazon Deforestation Prevention and Control (PPCDAM), an integrated set of integrated government policies that combine enhanced satellite monitoring and enforcement operations with land tenure regularization, alongside initiatives to encourage sustainable activities in the region. With the support of 13 government agencies, PPCDAM was instrumental in helping to reduce deforestation in the Amazon by 76.8 percent from 2004 to 2010.

Satellite images analysed by INPE's near-real time deforestation detection system (DETER) have enabled the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA), with support from the Federal Police, to set up precise and effective enforcement operations to halt illegal deforestation as it happens.

NASA images reveal disappearing mangroves worldwide
In August 2010, NASA and the US Geological Survey released the first-ever satellite analysis of the world's mangrove ecosystems. They found that mangroves covered 12.3% less area than previously estimated. Now, NASA has released images of the world's mangrove ecosystems, which currently cover 137,760 square kilometers. Yet this number keeps shrinking: mangroves are vanishing rapidly due to rising sea levels, deforestation for coastal developments, agriculture and aquaculture.

Among the world's most important ecosystems, mangroves are tropical saline-adapted forests that survive in tropical coastlines. These forests serve as nurseries for a variety marine fish, underpinning global fisheries and providing additional food for coastal communities. In addition, they store massive amounts of carbon and act as buffers against marine erosion. Recent studies have even found that mangroves buffer human populations and property against tropical storms. Yet despite their importance, less than 7% of the world's mangroves are under legal protection.

Source: PR Newswire

Read More

LiDAR Maps World’s Tallest Forests

A new study using laser pulses shot from satellites has found that the world's tallest forests are along the Pacific Northwest coast, Miami Herald reports. The temperate forests of Douglas fir, Western hemlock, redwoods and sequoias that stretch from northern California into British Columbia easily reach an average height of more than 131 feet. That's taller than the boreal forests of northern Canada and Eurasia, tropical rainforests and the broadleaf forests common in much of the United States and Europe. The only forests that come close are in Southeast Asia, along the southern rim of the Himalayas and in Indonesia, Malaysia and Laos.

Scientists suspect that the forests with the biggest trees store the most carbon, and the Northwest forests are probably among the largest carbon sinks in the world. However, they also say that while slower-growing older trees store more carbon, younger trees also absorb more carbon as they grow rapidly.

That sets up a debate about how forests should be managed, particularly whether older trees should be cut to make way for younger ones or whether they should be protected to store the carbon they contain.

Ongoing studies using the satellites and LiDAR may provide valuable information on how fast the forests are growing and how much carbon they store. "All of the remote sensing is providing us with the ability to monitor changes in the environment in a way you might not see on the ground," said Michael Lefsky, an assistant professor in the department of forest, rangeland and watershed stewardship at Colorado State University. "We are expecting under global warming that the productivity of the forests will change."

With the help of computers, Lefsky put together a global forest height map based on LiDAR data from 250 million laser pulses collected during a seven-year period. "It's like an echo," said Lefsky, whose findings were published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. Overall, LIDAR offered direct measurements of only 2.4 percent of the Earth's forested surfaces. "This is really just a first draft and it will certainly be refined in the future," he said.

LIDAR measures the height of forest canopies by shooting laser pulses and measuring how much longer it takes for them to bounce back from the surface than from the top of the forest canopy. The pulses can penetrate through the canopy to the ground.

Read More

Satellites to Map Sri Lanka Forests

The forests in the island are to be remapped using satellite images, Forest Department Assistant Conservator Nishantha Edirisinghe told the Daily News. "The previous mapping was done in 1999.

First we interpret forest cover, grass lands, buildings and water areas through satellite images, and then will go to forest lands to see whether the images obtained are true.

After categorizing into forest cover classes the maps will be drawn using the CIS software" he said.

He also said that, the Department hopes to release this map within next three months.

"This will be of use to obtain contemporary facts about remaining forests in Sri Lanka" he added.

Read More

Global Forest Monitoring service for REDD+

As the 18th Commonwealth Forestry Conference is about to begin in Edinburgh, DMCii has launched a new service specifically tailored to help in the fight to conserve global forests, according to ballard.co.uk. DMCii’s Global Forest Monitoring service uses satellite imagery to produce easily-understood maps of forest cover change. Uniquely, the service’s wide-area forest surveys can be updated annually, monthly - or more often still for areas judged most at risk – delivering the timely data necessary for operational management.

This week’s Commonwealth Forestry Conference has the theme of restoring the Commonwealth’s forests. Together the 54 states of the Commonwealth are home to 800 million hectares of forest, representing 20% of the world’s remaining trees. The Conference is discussing conserving current forested areas and restoring lost forests as a means of benefiting regional habitats and communities - as well as tackling global climate change.

The world’s forests form a significant stock of carbon, which is being released as CO2 as forests are impacted by human intervention. The tropical rainforests hold 80% of forest carbon and the destruction of these is responsible for around 20% of anthropogenic carbon emissions. Among the subjects under discussion during the Conference is an UN-led initiative called REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation), which aims to place a value on intact forests by paying governments to prevent their destruction.

However REDD+ requires reliable and timely information on the state of the forests. Satellite imagery is the only effective way of mapping such vast areas on a regular basis, but it can still take a long while for individual satellites to build up a complete regional picture, especially as tropical rainforests are often covered by clouds. In the past, forest maps could only be updated every five to 10 years, leaving them of limited practical use.

DMCii’s Global Forest Monitoring service is based around a constellation of six satellites known as the Disaster Monitoring Constellation which work together to provide rapid mapping services. Independently owned but collectively coordinated, the satellites have a joint daily repeat imaging capability for anywhere in the world, meaning that even cloudy areas can be imaged frequently enough to achieve full coverage.

The first generation Disaster Monitoring Constellation satellites offer optical imaging at 32m ground sample distance (GSD) with a very wide 650 km swath capable for example of covering the entire UK in a single pass. Last year two new satellites were launched, UK-DMC2 and Deimos-1, with 22m GSD, effectively doubling the number of pixels per hectare and greatly boosting the constellation’s overall imaging capacity. Each Disaster Monitoring Constellation satellite observes in three spectral bands compatible with Landsat - the world’s longest running Earth-observing satellite series – so long term forest changes and many types of degradation can be identified.

Information derived from the satellites is used to provide maps of forest/non-forest regions, clear cut areas, logging roads and forest degradation. The service is also intended as a means of training and building capacity in the use and processing of satellite data, deriving information maps from data and interpretation of forest maps.

“Our new Global Forest Monitoring service is derived from our work partnering with governments and institutions on a number of existing forest initiatives,” said Paul Stephens, DMCii Director Sales and Marketing. “This experience has taught us that high-frequency satellite surveys for operational forest monitoring are required for adequate forest management. With survey gaps of more than six months, forest degradation becomes difficult to detect, and authorities need up-to-date information to target ground surveys. The need for regular information is clearly there – countries without operational forest monitoring programmes will be refused entry to the REDD+ process.”

Since 2005 DMCii has been providing regular multi-temporal coverage of the Amazon basin, focusing on areas most at risk. Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) uses the results to identify changes in forest cover, both to calculate the rate of deforestation and also to provide early warnings of illegal clearances which Brazil’s forest agency, the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA), can then investigate on the ground.

DMCii is also supporting the European Commission’s Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) Africa initiative to map all of sub-Saharan Africa during 2010, including the dense, rarely-charted forests of the Congo Basin, the world’s second largest rainforest ecosystem after the Amazon basin.

Finally DMCii is leading a team including the University of Leicester and the World Resources Institute to combine satellite imagery with other data sources to produce reliable maps and statistics of forest cover changes across Indonesia. The archipelago nation’s forests represent a particularly challenging subject for mapping because they are distributed across many islands, and plagued by peat fires whose smoke can obscure wide areas of territory in the same manner as clouds.

Read More

Biomass Mapping Solution in Amazon Forest

Fugro EarthData announced today that it has developed accurate, landscape-level estimates of carbon content in lowland tropical forests in South America using data collected by its airborne radar mapping platform, GeoSAR. The work is funded through a grant extended by the Blue Moon Fund, and executed through the fund’s partnerships with Wake Forest University (WFU) and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

Originally developed by NASA JPL and currently owned and operated by Fugro, GeoSAR is a one-of-a-kind mapping system that collects dual-band radar data through clouds and dense foliage over large project areas. "GeoSAR's radar observations using two separate frequencies, one reflecting off the tree canopy and the other penetrating the foliage, is ideally-suited to recovering tropical forest biomass with a high degree of certainty over high biomass areas," said Dr. Miles Silman, associate professor of Biology, Wake Forest University.

Project deliverables include digital, high-resolution above-ground biomass estimates for the project area, and a map of total carbon storage for evaluation of REDD related baseline projects. "Until now, much of the work related to forest carbon estimations have relied on ground-based sampling methods. Using our cutting-edge remote sensing technology we are developing a viable solution for monitoring forest carbon stock that will support future climate change research and policy," said Ed Saade, president of Fugro EarthData.

Read More

Forest Mapping in Scotland's Native Forests

BBC reports: A national map of all of Scotland's native forests is starting to emerge for the first time.

Surveyors are conducting research in about 730,000 hectares of woodland across the whole of the country as part of a six-year study.

Their results have so far detailed the location, size and type of forests in eight local authority areas.

The areas covered are Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee, North, South and East Ayrshire and East Renfrew.

Environment Minister Roseanna Cunningham said: "Scotland's woodlands are becoming increasingly important to us in a number of ways - from sustaining and enhancing biodiversity to helping in the fight against climate change, from serving as a lynchpin for many rural enterprises, to offering a wide range of recreational opportunities to communities across the country.

"This is a hugely important survey and I am confident will make a significant contribution towards protecting, enhancing and expanding this magnificent resource."

Landowners, conservationists and local authorities will be able to use the information gathered to help them protect and develop these woodlands.

The research is being conducted by the Forestry Commission Scotland, with support from Scottish Natural Heritage.

A Forestry Commission spokesman said: "Our forests and woods are becoming increasingly significant factors in key industries such as green tourism and recreation provision.

"There is great potential to utilise the native woodland resource to enjoy these activities, and there is widespread public support for more native woodland in the landscape."

Read More

Quantification of global gross forest cover loss

The study — titled "Quantification of global gross forest cover loss" by Profs. Matthew Hansen and Peter Potapov of the Geographic Information Science Center of Excellence at the South Dakota State University — was posted last week on the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Web site. USA Today covered the story:

Out of seven of the most heavily forested nations on Earth, the United States experienced a greater percentage of forest loss from 2000 to 2005 than did any of the other countries, a study said Monday.

The United States lost more than 46,000 square miles of forest in those years, a size roughly equivalent to the state of Pennsylvania. That's about 6% of the nation's forested land.

"That's the most of the seven countries that have over 1 million square kilometers of forest," says study lead author Matthew Hansen of South Dakota State University.

Worldwide, researchers determined that the globe lost forest cover of nearly 400,000 square miles — roughly 3% of the world's forested areas — during the first half of the last decade. The other countries in the study were Canada, Russia, China, Brazil, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The study found that the forest loss was the result of both human and natural causes.

"We do not quantify what the causes are, and we do not quantify how much forest gain there was from 2000 to 2005," Hansen says. "But clearly, industrial harvesting/clearing is very important."

Man-made causes of forest loss include logging and wildfires caused by people. Natural causes would include natural wildfires and storm damage.

The one part of the contiguous USA that experienced the most forest loss was the Southeast, a large chunk of which lost more than 10% of its forest cover from 2000 to 2005, the year for which the most recent data were available.

Hansen points out that the forest loss in the USA isn't necessarily permanent: "This does not mean that (the forests) do not regenerate, and we make no statements whatsoever about sustainability," he says. "But, compared to other regions of the world, a lot is going on."

The first of its kind, the study used satellite images to measure forest loss around the world. Hansen says much more study in the area is needed as improvements are made in satellite technology and accessibility. "We need to be more ambitious," he says. "If we had an improved monitoring capability, you could imagine a daily 'land report,' akin to weather, where fires, floods, crop emergence, new forest clearing, new construction are quantified."

Some of those who left comments online did not agree with the research results:

From smc8660:

As a forester in the southeast, it saddens me to see this article. By only covering the LOSSES they are crying wolf. Here in the Southeast, we supply most our country's timber but as any good forester knows our pine plantations are crops. Just like you would do with corn, we replant our trees. Usually, we replant in the same year that we harvest. Pine in the SE can be fully mature and ready for harvest, under good management at 25 years. If it is for pulpwood (paper products) it can be ready in 15 years.

So yes, you will see truck after truck of mature pine being taken to a mill. What you never see is the truck containing thousands of seedlings. Big trees are easy to see, the thousands that arrive in refrigerated trucks are not.

Think about it, would it make ANY sense to ignore replanting? We wouldn't have a career if we didn't replant. Plus, I guarantee, most people cannot tell the difference between 20 yr old pine and 40 year old pine. In the SE, "old growth" (a misleading term at BEST) is 50-70 yrs.

Support agriculture, support your land-grant universities, support your future with responsible forestry.

Please be a more balanced reporter Mr. Rice, it would improve your reputation.

Read More

Satellite imagery shows devastation caused by California forest fires

Satellite imagery from the recently launched UK-DMC2 satellite shows forest fires in the Los Padres National Forest east of Santa Maria at 11:10 local time on the 12th August.

California is currently experiencing widespread forest fires, which has lead to evacuations in two areas. Earlier today, Bloomberg reported that more than 1,900 fire fighters were battling the blaze that has burned at least 48,457 acres in the Los Padres National Forest area of Santa Barbara County.

The image was acquired by DMCii in Guildford, UK from the new UK-DMC2 earth observation satellite just 16 days after its launch into the Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) on 29th July.

To the East of Santa Maria, an enormous cloud of smoke from the fire can be clearly seen extending to the West above the patchwork agricultural of farms that begins in the outskirts of Santa Maria. The artificial red indicates green vegetation and the dark patch indicates burned areas, revealing the damage that has been caused to the trees of the Los Padres National Forest from which the smoke plume is blowing. The characteristic shape of Lake Cachuma can be seen to the south of the image.

The UK-DMC2 satellite was launched into the DMC constellation of earth observation satellites with the Spanish owned satellite Deimos-1 satellite. Both satellites were built by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL), and are already acquiring impressive satellite images of natural disasters, agricultural land and familiar landmarks around the world during the first week of their commissioning.

To find out more about UK-DMC2, its future role in disaster relief and Earth observation visit www.sstl.co.uk/Missions/UK-DMC2

Read More

Old Asia-Pacific maps from Japanese Imperial Army archives

Shigeru Kobayashi, professor at Osaka University said that old Asian maps from Japanese Imperial Army archives will be available goonline for modern use, such as studying changes in forest cover or the growth of cities.

Some of the maps date back to the 1880s, offering detailed topographical glimpses of the region when foreign occupations and colonialization were common.

Kobayashi is part of a team, led by scholars from several Japanese universities, that is putting the maps on the Internet.

Until the end of World War II, the Japanese military created, copied and stole maps of the vast region stretching from Alaska to Australia, and from the Korean peninsula to Pakistan.

Certain regions, including China, the Korean peninsula, Sakhalin and Taiwan -- which Japan occupied or colonized until the end of the war -- were mapped more frequently than others.

The military nature of the maps, some of which were created in secret, required researchers to be sensitive today, Kobayashi said.

The project has drawn some criticism online from residents of countries that fell victim to Japanese military aggression in the past, he added.

The growing online map collection can be viewed at a Japanese-language Internet archive hosted by Tohoku University.

Read More

High-fidelity Imaging Spectroscopy (HiFIS): Mapping the rainforests

Gregory Asner and his team at the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology recently created a new approach, part of the Carnegie Spectranomics Project, which can determine the chemical and structural properties and even the diversity of species in unprecedented detail over broad swaths of rain forests from aircraft. In a commitment to support this new science of airborne forest ecology, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation has awarded Asner a $5.2-million grant to advance the instrument technology required to make rain forest exploration and monitoring a reality.

The new technology is called High-fidelity Imaging Spectroscopy (HiFIS). It is part of the Carnegie Spectranomics Project and a major improvement of instrumentation already established aboard the Carnegie Airborne Observatory (CAO)–a unique airborne mapping system that can inventory and probe rain forest vegetation over nearly 40,000 acres per day. The highly portable CAO is flown aboard a fixed-wing aircraft. It uses waveform LiDAR (light detection and ranging) system that maps the 3-dimensional structure of vegetation and combines it with spectroscopic imaging. By analyzing many wavelengths of reflected light, this imaging reveals a forest's biochemistry in stunningly beautiful 3-D maps. Although already pathbreaking and successful, the existing system lacks several critical features needed for the most detailed chemical and taxonomic mapping.

According to the report, the Carnegie Spectranomics Project plans to map rain forests in Africa, Southeast Asia, Amazonia, the Caribbean, and the western Pacific. The Moore-supported High-Fidelity Imaging Spectrometer sub-component will be developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and integrated with the existing Carnegie LiDAR system to create the Airborne Taxonomic Mapping System, or AToMS. The existing instrument system, which successfully imaged complex ecosystems in Hawaii and South Africa, was enabled by generous grants from the W. M. Keck Foundation and Carnegie trustee William R. Hearst, III.

The team is also constructing a database of plant chemical fingerprints by collecting plants on the ground and calibrating their chemistry with spectroscopic measurements from the air to establish a library of thousands of individual species.

Read More

GIS maps for Wilton, New Hampshire

GIS maps have been introduced to officials of Wilton, New Hampshire, USA, says reports. Maps showing the town's various kinds of natural resources were plotted to better understand the significance of the land.

The five individual maps were produced, which served as GIS layers for other analysis maps.

The maps were placed around the old courtroom for comparison and comment. All of the maps include roads, water bodies and conservation lands.

The five individual maps are:

• A map compiled from aerial photography made by the U.S. Department of Agriculture earlier this year. McGraw said similar maps from 1998 and 2003 are available for comparison.

• A map of historic and cultural resources compiled from various town sources.

• A farm and forest map highlighting good soils and open lands. Agricultural lands also include "scenic viewsheds."

• A map of wildlife habitats showing "unfragmented lands" – those areas that are not crossed by roads or other man-made features, which are critical for wildlife corridors. McGraw used the resources of the state Fish and Game Department, including their new Wildlife Action Plan, to create this map.

• A water resources map that includes setbacks and buffers, wellhead protection areas and potentially contaminated areas. Information for this map was provided in part by the Department of Environmental Services.

Read More

Digital maps to manage forest resources

Learning to digitally map their forests has empowered a group of landowners of Dreketi, on Vanua Levu, to better manage their resources.

The group of landowners from the villages of Keka and Vatuvonu of the Yavusa Drawa are the first in the Northern Division to learn about digitally mapping their forests.

The landowners' forests have been managed under the Sustainable Forest Management Project since 2003 and are the model project for the country.

GTZ official Jalesi Mateboto said the five-year project would phase out by December and that the landowners were being empowered now with management skills that would help them to continue to manage their forests in a sustainable manner long after the experts had left.

"With these mapping skills they are able to identify which sections of forests must not be harvested, which have been harvested already so that they don't continue to indiscriminately log their forests," Mr Mateboto said.

"Sometimes after three years of logging some landowners realise they don't have forests left to log, food disappears from streams nearby and the ecosystem which they are part of collapses," he said.

Mr Mateboto the mapping skills allowed landowners to identify the land use system that best suited a particular area of land.

"They can allocate a certain piece of land for agriculture, for forestry and the part that must not be harvested at all or disturbed," he said.

"What we have wanted them to understand is that they are part of the forest ecosystem and when the forests die, their livelihoods die as well.
"So with this digital mapping system they are better in control of how their forests are used," he said.

As part of their training GTZ has equipped the landowners with the Global Positioning System to gather information about their forests and which is then stored into a MapInfo Software.

[via]

Read More