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?
