GeoSAR continues to make headlines! Fugro Earthdata recently announced that the Blue Moon Fund decided to utilize GeoSAR’s biomass mapping solution in the Amazon Rainforest. GeoSAR’s unique duel band frequencies (X-band and P-band) provide the perfect solution for estimating tropical rainforest biomass. The X-band reflects of the tree tops were the P-band penetrates through the foliage reflecting the near bare Earth, thus producing landscape-level estimates of carbon content in lowland tropical forests. 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. The work will be 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). Please stay tuned for more GeoSAR updates!
Posts Tagged ‘Carbon accounting’
GEOSAR FOR BIOMASS MAPPING SOLUTION IN AMAZON FOREST
Friday, June 4th, 2010Remote Sensing and Climate Change Part III: The COP-15 Recap
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009As the last entry in our series about remote sensing and climate change, we offer a rundown on COP-15. Overall, the meeting did not deliver on most of the major aims:
– No deadline for a legally-binding agreement
– No greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets for 2020
– No goal for reducing global emissions by 2050
– No deadline for global greenhouse emissions to reach their peak
– No mention of aviation and shipping (specific sectoral agreement)
But that’s not to say COP-15 was a failure. There was some progress on monitoring, reporting, and verification; REDD; financing; and technology transfer. Details on each of these topics follow.
Monitoring, reporting, and verification: China, India, and other developing nations are to publish their emissions curbing commitments in annexes to a new global agreement. They would then communicate progress to those goals according to internationally agreed upon standards.
REDD: On deforestation, there should be the “immediate establishment of a mechanism, including REDD-plus” to mobilize capital from developed countries for “reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation” and enhancing “removals of greenhouse gas emission by forests”.
Financing: Developed countries are to “support a goal of mobilizing jointly 100 billion dollars a year by 2020 to address the needs of developing countries”. This funding will come from a wide variety of sources, public and private, bilateral and multilateral, including alternative sources of finance. There will also be 30 billion dollars made available over the 3-year period of 2010 to 2012, balanced between climate change adaptation and emissions mitigation. Further, a new UN Framework Convention on Climate Change mechanism called the Copenhagen Green Climate Fund will be established to support funded “projects, programs, and policies” on mitigation, REDD-plus, adaptation, capacity building, technology development and transfer.
Technology transfer: A new technology mechanism will also be established to further accelerate technology development and transfer under a country-by-country approach. (This is in contrast to the existing CDM which takes a project-based approach.)
So what does this mean for remote sensing? Without a binding agreement, it may still be too early to tell. But cautiously speaking, it appears we are headed down a path where REDD (or REDD-plus) will be properly funded, which means the remote sensing technologies we discussed last week will be used to help measure and monitor forest carbon.
This, along with the emphasis on technology transfer holds real promise. By increasing the number of users skilled in the science and application of geospatial data, climate change policy can impact countless other areas of a developing nation’s existence, from infrastructure planning to emergency response to economic development. Now that’s something to be optimistic about in the New Year.
Remote Sensing and Climate Change Part II: Making REDD Work
Friday, December 18th, 2009As heads of state and other government leaders enter the final rounds of the COP-15 climate change talks, many key issues remain unresolved. The target rate of emissions reductions by wealthy nations, the amount of aid to poor nations, and monitoring compliance are at the crux of the slow-moving negotiations.
It’s the monitoring piece where geospatial comes into play. As addressed in our last entry about the REDD initiative, several remote sensing methodologies can contribute to large-area forest carbon measurement and monitoring, each with unique benefits. This week we are taking a closer look, reviewing the top-three technologies and briefly exploring their strengths and weaknesses:
Optical imaging: Offering low-cost, repeat coverage acquisition over large project areas, satellite-based hyperspectral and multispectral imagery has shown some potential for biomass estimation. Systems with sophisticated scheduling enable around 70 percent cloud-free coverage in equatorial regions, thereby reducing weather obstacles. And while satellite is proving a good source for monitoring REDD sites in Brazil, it alone isn’t a good source for carbon measurement. For that, you need tree height data and optical imagery provides only canopy-level information.
LiDAR mapping: Foresters have long used LiDAR systems to measure forest canopy and vertical structures. As an active sensor, airborne LiDAR data can be acquired night or day, providing very dense and accurate datasets. The downside to this approach is the high cost of acquisition and processing over large areas. Satellite-based LiDAR systems may help control these costs with wide area coverage and automated processing capabilities. The Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) on NASA’s Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) is one such example. Some studies show promising results, though clouds are an issue, and so is a general lack of ground height data. So, again, LiDAR may be a technology best suited for monitoring practices.
IFSAR mapping: Low frequency, long bandwidth IFSAR is an all-weather technology that provides high foliage penetration for near bare-earth elevation data, even in dense forests. When combined with higher frequency, short bandwidth IFSAR (which provides elevations of top surfaces), it is possible to detect the heights of individual trees within a forest. That’s the beauty of GeoSAR; it offers both views of the forest simultaneously and can also be used to identify forest type. This data, combined with biomass information on individual tree species, enables efficient and accurate forest carbon content estimations.
But GeoSAR isn’t a silver bullet. Given the relative high cost of airborne acquisitions in comparison to satellite sensors, IFSAR isn’t an ideal monitoring solution. It’s role is to provide accurate baseline information from which REDD programs can be evaluated.
Fugro EarthData published an article about using dual-band IFSAR for carbon accounting in the July issue of PE&RS. It’s a good source of information about remote sensing and climate change monitoring. And, if you want to catch the latest on COP-15, here’s a live web cast of the proceedings.
Next week: COP-15 wrap-up and its implications for remote sensing. Check back then!
Remote Sensing and Climate Change Part 1: Forest Carbon Monitoring in Support of REDD
Friday, December 4th, 2009
This week, we are kicking off a blog series on remote sensing and climate change, a timely topic given the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP-15) later this month. The first topic of discussion: carbon accounting.
In addition to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, many experts agree that managing the world’s terrestrial carbon is critical to addressing the problem of climate change. Doing so will require first measuring and then monitoring carbon levels found within the world’s trees, soils, and peat. Carbon accounting of tropical forests is deemed especially important since they comprise the world’s largest natural filter of CO2 emissions.
Of course, for developing nations, where the majority of tropical forests reside, these forests provide a major source of economic development. Keeping these forests intact is the goal of the United Nation’s Collaborative Program on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD).
At the most basic level, REDD seeks to generate a new financing stream for sustainable forest management in developing countries, providing monetary incentives for conservation over development. A plan initiated by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown last weekend may give a jumpstart to this concept.
Looking ahead to COP-15, Brown proposed a ÂŁ10 billion fund, backed by wealthy nations, to assist developing nations in battling climate change. The funding proposed by Brown would go toward developing low-carbon energy sources, managing the effects of a warming climate, and halting deforestation. As part of this plan, Brown called for an international satellite monitoring system to measure compliance with the program.
And while Brown’s plan provides a step in the right direction when it comes to REDD, it may well oversimplify the solution. Is satellite technology the sole answer? Definitely not. There are a wide range of optical, LiDAR, and IFSAR sensors—airborne, as well as satellite—that offer a variety resolutions and data products to support tropical forest monitoring efforts. Each sensor-type has both benefits and drawbacks, but combined with in situ technologies, can be used to create very accurate maps to meet the goal of improved carbon management.
Next week, we’ll dig into the specifics of those technologies, so be sure to check back then. In the meantime, feel free to continue the conversation. Do you see forest carbon monitoring as an essential role to halting climate change? Have you been involved in any such research? What were the results?
Remote Sensing and Climate Change: Introducing a Three-Part Series
Friday, November 20th, 2009
Next month, leaders from 193 countries will meet in Copenhagen to participate in the United Nations Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP-15). There’s a lot of attention on this year’s meeting as participants work to craft an ambitious global climate agreement that will begin in 2012 when the first commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol expires. Whether there is enough support to bring about a binding agreement at COP-15 is doubtful, however. Recent statements from the United States and elsewhere indicate there are still too many questions yet to be resolved. Even so, many see the conference as an ideal place to tackle the issues of “burden sharing” and related concerns so that an agreement can be signed in 2010, if not 2009.
So what has this got to do with a geospatial blog? Quite a lot, actually. A quick visit to the “Methods & Science” section of the UN Conference on Climate Change
Topics in our series will include geospatial capabilities for carbon monitoring, with an emphasis on radar; legislation that will impact climate change policy both in the United States and abroad; and the push for REDD approval.
We hope you’ll log on and contribute to the discussion, which will be facilitated by GeoSAR Client Program Manager, Caroline Tyra, our resident expert in all things carbon. If there is a climate change topic not mentioned here, that you’d like us to address, let us know and we’ll be sure to tackle it.
Beyond Points and Pixels
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009As summer winds down and fall ramps up (at least in the Northern Hemisphere), so too does the GeoSAR event calendar. Participating in conferences and workshops across the globe, our client program managers (CPMs) have been globetrotting more than normal lately. But any stress felt by long lines and limited leg space is well tempered by a love for travel. As Roy Hill, a veteran CPM explains it, “It’s only after you’ve actually been to a place—seen its topography and experienced its culture—that you can begin to envision all the potential ways geospatial data can be employed.” Indeed, mapping isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution anymore.
This notion played out last month at the Map Asia conference held in Singapore. There, Roy presented a paper entitled, “Advanced Feature Extraction and Classification Using GeoSAR P-band and X-band DBInSAR”. It’s a new technique with a long list of potential applications, including, resource mapping, intelligence mapping, and biomass estimation. For a government considering new country-level topographic mapping, this capability far out-values the off-the-shelf, points-and-pixels approach to geo-knowledge development.
In fact, it was the biomass potential that made a big impact in the room that day. A gentleman, whose company consults on REDD-based programs, was intrigued to learn of a remote sensing approach to carbon accounting that could overcome the barriers of weather and dense foliage. But it’s not just the single solution that is exciting; it’s the ability to exploit a foundational dataset to develop new revenue streams and answer critical emerging issues. The science has come so far…why not make the most of it?
Bada Bing: The Challenge of Innovation
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
Earlier this summer, Microsoft launched its revamped “Live Search” service under the name “Bing.” If you haven’t seen it—and chances are you haven’t—you should. It’s pretty cool. The fact that you may not have tried it yet (we only recently did) proves how hard it can be to introduce a new product or service offering, despite its cool factor. Generating excitement for innovation among the din of complacency is an uphill battle, but once won, the rewards are as satisfying for the provider as they are for the early adopters and mass audience who follow.
Consider the rise of Google in the 1990s and our own recent “revolution” in the remote sensing world. At about the same time Google was overturning the well established likes of Yahoo and MSN, Optech and Leica were proving the same was possible in the remote sensing industry. By replacing photogrammetrically generated DEMs with dense, accurate LiDAR-sourced DEMs, these companies and early adopters helped usher in a new wave of productivity and an expanded user base for geospatial data.
Are we now facing a similar movement with IFSAR? While IFSAR will not replace LiDAR mapping altogether, it is gaining acceptance as a cost-effective alternative for large area, small scale topographic mapping projects. Further, dual-band IFSAR is showing value for even broader applications, including oil and gas exploration and carbon accounting. And that brings us to another question: what are the keys for successfully promoting new technology in the geospatial marketplace? Is it science first or marketing first? We believe it starts with science, but what about you?
The Use of Remote Sensing in Curbing Climate Change
Thursday, July 9th, 2009
Climate change: these two little words describe one of the biggest challenges of our time. The solutions to this multi-faceted problem, which has been building since the industrial revolution, tend toward controversy. Take cap-and-trade, a concept that has received much media attention lately. Given the state of the global economy, assigning a dollar value to greenhouse gas emissions has lawmakers and business leaders up in arms.
But there’s another side to the issue, one that holds a lot of promise to the remote sensing industry: protecting the world’s forests. Since forests absorb CO2, one of the biggest greenhouse gas pollutants, the health of these “natural filters” is of utmost importance. The United Nations and other groups have proposed incentive-based programs to reduce deforestation across the globe. Biomass estimations and carbon accounting will be a critical function of any such effort.
Until now, much of the work in this regard has relied on ground-based methods with only a few studies based on low-resolution satellite data. As reported in the current issue of PE&RS, there is a move toward high-resolution satellite and airborne techniques for improved carbon accounting accuracy and efficiency. The article, written by Fugro EarthData’s Dr. Mark Williams and Jake Jenkins, documents the pros and cons of several remote sensing methodologies, including the potential role of dual-band IFSAR for carbon accounting.