SibFORD

Results

The overall objective of the research was to improve the spatially explicit assessment of carbon emissions induced by forest disturbances by incorporating Earth Observation techniques in combination with insitu data and contemporary greenhouse gas models. The study has been carried out within the Central Siberia region, which regularly experiences disturbances by fire and logging. Carbon emissions from forest fires have been estimated for five consecutive years (2003-2007) on a grid size of 20 x 20 kilometres.

The methodology applied involved several steps of data assimilation, complex data analysis and model adaptation. First, a database of basic forests parameters, including tree species composition, forest age and biomass has been created. This forest database was developed through harmonization of existing Earth Observation data derived products (e.g. land cover maps) combined with additional remote sensing data analysis and available in-situ information. The second step was to develop a database on pre-disturbance forest fuel load which allows distinguishing different forest canopy layers, the main fire types in this region and the resulting potential biomass burnt. As part of this research project a new burnt area product including burnt severity has been derived from daily Terra MODIS data at 250m spatial resolution for the period 2003-2007. The same source data facilitated also the development of a database on forest area lost due to logging. The next step was to adapt an existing model and develop a user interface allowing the combination of these datasets in order to calculate Carbon emissions resulting from forest disturbances. The carbon emissions obtained for the study region are on average, over the period 2003-2007, 23.5% higher (Standard Deviation 15.6) than those from the official Russian statistics. Finally, a GIS-analysis has been conducted to estimate the fire ignition source based on databases of lightnings and fire cause records along with topographic base maps.

The results achieved in the project framework provide significant contribution into various applications related to practical forestry and forest protection, forest ecology and environmental science. The results also contribute to Carbon flux accounting between forest ecosystems and atmosphere under land cover/land use change scenarios according to the UNFCCC and Kyoto protocol. In particular the achieved results lead to significant increase of burnt area mapping accuracy and completeness and the method developed can be applied at continental level of Northern Eurasia. The burnt severity and area logged assessment methods gives unique opportunity to quantitatively estimate the impact of major natural and anthropogenic factors on forest ecosystems, which is an important contribution into forest management and national reporting in the framework of the Kyoto protocol.

The Carbon emission assessment tools and forest fuel load database created during the project will be implemented into the Russian fire monitoring system for the annual forest fire Carbon assessment based on satellite and ground observation data.

GIS/RS technology and data produced during the SibFORD project are already being applied in East-Siberian Forest Enterprise “Vostsiblesproekt” (Ministry of natural resources of Russian Federation) in order to detect and monitor industrial and illegal logging, forest fires and pests propagation outbreaks.

All datasets can be accessed from the Siberian Earth System Science Cluster.