• 09:20 Potential opportunities and adaptability of the European Space Agency (ESA)’s BIOMASS mission products in the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region

  Gilani, Hammad; Murthy, M.S.R. International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, Nepal

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  The Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region extends over 3,500 km encompassing all or parts of eight countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan. Globalization and climate change have an increasing influence on the stability of fragile mountain ecosystems and the livelihoods of mountain people. The region contains 10 of Asia’s largest river systems, which provide water and ecosystem services to the 210 million people living in mountain areas, as well as the 1.3 billion people downstream. In 2007 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recognized the HKH region as a ‘‘data-deficit area”. In the last few decades the HKH has undergone rapid economic, social, and environmental changes impacting on land cover and land cover change, driving change in ecosystems and their services. According to World Resources Institute (WRI) 30m global forest watch data, in ten years (2000-2010) 16,416 km2 forest loss in the HKH region. Based on 0.5ºx0.5º global biomass inventory developed by Kindermann et al., 2008 using Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) statists, maximum 450Mg/ha Above Ground Biomass (AGB) and 45Mg/ha Below Ground Biomass (BGB) exist in the region. According to the analysis, rate of change in forest carbon is more on longitudinal gradient than on altitudinal gradient. This shows the possible role of forests on land surface climatology at latitudinal gradient. Forest cover change assessment in terms of the deforestation monitoring can rely on remote sensing technology with ground measurements for verification. While monitoring and mapping forest degradation and carbon stocks is more challenging, and largely relies on ground measurements, complemented by remote sensing. The Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) mechanism is a great hope for saving the world's forests. Now known as REDD+ (enhancement carbon stocks), could finally create financial incentives for keeping forests standing instead of chopping them down for timber, pulp and paper, cattle, palm oil, and rubber. A cost effective monitoring and evaluation system for REDD+ requires a balanced approach of remote sensing and ground measurements. In the HKH region, five countries (Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan) out of eight at the national and/or sub-national level REDD+ initiatives are already implementing by integration of field inventories and satellite remote sensing data. During the last decade, the scope to generate more biophysical information both in horizontal and vertical domains and estimation of biomass has improved enormously due to the launch of very high resolution optical sensors, airborne and space borne microwave and LiDAR systems. Very high spatial resolution optical systems have the potential to provide details on canopy morphology which can be related to biomass. Airborne microwave and LiDAR systems have been used over across the world to retrieve stand height and estimate biomass. Forest structure and biomass often exhibit nonlinear variations across space and variable interaction across temporal and spatial scales. Saatchi et al., (2011) prepared AGB and BGB using a combination of data from 4,079 in situ inventory plots and satellite Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) LiDAR samples of forest structure through data fusion model based on the Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) approach. The challenges in carbon pools and flux estimates lie in the extent to which the degree of uncertainty could be reduced. The stages where errors accumulate include i) Measurement errors at plot level ii) Errors due to allometric relationships, iii) Sampling errors iv) Model prediction errors. The results in development of spatial explicit biomass as a function of the resolution of satellite data used and hence the model can be developed from local, regional to national scales. Primary advantages of space borne Synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) in biomass estimation, mapping and monitoring is due to cloud penetration and through-canopy backscatter at certain frequencies. It is now well-established that longer wavelengths (L-band/P-band) penetrate through the canopy and go through multiple backscatter from canopy, trunk, stem, branches, leaves, and soil. Often, there may be multiple-bounce backscatter too, such as stem-ground. Previously, backscatter models have been used, where Michigan & Santa Monica microwave canopy backscatter models have been popular. Of late, statistical methods to calibrate models and measurements against reference biomass measurements (e.g. from ground surveys or LiDAR campaigns) have been used to derive biomass from SAR measurements. The European Space Agency (ESA)’s BIOMASS mission, a novel P-band synthetic aperture polarimetric radar for global distribution forest biomass with additional parameters is going to open new window towards transparency for REDD+ Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV). It will reduce operational costs as well as uncertainty in the calculation of carbon stock and fluxes associated with the terrestrial biosphere. Gibbs et al., (2007) reviewed benefits and limitations of available methods to estimate national-level forest carbon stocks. They mentioned, in the mountainous terrain radar based carbon stock estimation also increases errors. At the initial stages, certain level of authentication for BIOMASS mission products, ground based validation will be essential. So in this regards, in HKH region already ongoing ground and geospatial efforts can complement each other for the future potential opportunities and adaptability among the broader audience.

  
   

• 09:00 What do developing countries need from the BIOMASS mission for REDD+ reporting?

  Gerrand, Adam FAO, Italy

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  The presentation will outline the main reporting requirements that are relevant to the BIOMASS mission under the UN Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) and in particular country reporting on reductions on emissions from deforestation and degradation (known as REDD+). The UNFCCC has a number of decisions that provide guidance to countries on how to do the measurement and reporting and also refers to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Guidance. To be eligible for REDD+ payments countries will have to prepare a National Forest Monitoring System (NFMS) and a Forest Reference Emission Level or Forest Reference Level (FREL/FRL) that will require remote sensing data to provide consistent historical land-use change information. For BIOMASS to be most useful there will need to be a good understanding of the relationships between the results from other sensors that are used to generate current/past data. The BIOMASS mission will produce a globally consistent dataset on biomass for international modelling. However, for national purposes, this will need to be tailored to specific country conditions as most countries prefer to develop and use national data for reporting. BIOMASS mission designers should work closely with as many developing countries as possible to try to develop relevant products. The BIOMASS mission should also consider developing specialized “niche” products that take advantage of the benefits of radar and overcome some of the limitations of optical data that is routinely used. For example, concentrating efforts on the identification and quantification of biomass (and change) of flooded forest, peat-lands, and wetlands which have a large effect on GHG stocks and fluxes; or products that can fill data gaps due to persistent cloud cover in some tropical forested areas. Importantly, the BIOMASS mission should ensure that it is able to deliver processed products for end-users and not just raw radar data which is not going to be useful for many developing countries. These products should be developed using a wide range of field data to be robust and well calibrated, preferably with uncertainties estimated. Thus, there should be substantial testing of the methods and calibration of data across a wide variety of forest types in collaboration with scientists from developing countries. Given that many developing countries have weak or limited remote sensing collection, processing and analysis capacities, there should be significant efforts to develop the capacity of in-country staff to be able to process these new streams of data. Efforts should be made early in the design phase to collaborate with national experts to work out what products and how best to include the BIOMASS data in national GHG and forest monitoring systems for both domestic and international reporting. FAO, UN-REDD and many other agencies are working to support many developing countries on REDD+ and GHG reporting and partnerships should be developed between the scientific community working on BIOMASS and the countries and agencies involved. If the BIOMASS mission is designed to meet these challenges and deliver products that meet the needs of developing country users and not only the remote sensing scientific experts, then it will be able to play a very useful role in global and national reporting on GHG emissions from forests and land-use changes.

  
   

• 09:40 National requirements for reporting forest biomass and GHG emissions

  Eggleston, Simon Global Forest Observations Initiative Programme Office, Switzerland

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  TBC

  
   

• 10:00 Plenary Discussion - BIOMASS

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  Plenary Discussion - BIOMASS

  
   

Highlights

In May 2013, the Biomass mission concept was selected to become the next in the series of satellites developed to further our understanding of Earth.

Released: 21/06/2013

REPLAY EARTH EXPLORER 7 USER CONSULTATION MEETING (PART 1)

Released: 11/03/2013

POLinSAR 2013 Workshop

Released: 22/02/2013