Transcript Slide 1

Prospects for using
Forest Inventory and Analysis
and related data
for monitoring forest carbon offsets
Linda S. Heath
USDA Forest Service
Northern Research Station, FIA
Forest Carbon Accounting and Research
Durham, NH
Forest and Agriculture GHG Forum, Shepardstown, WV,
April 6-9, 2009
Acknowledgments:
Rich Birdsey
Ken Brewer
Ray Czaplewski
Andy Lister
Hobie Perry
Rachel Riemann
Chip Scott
Brad Smith
Jim Smith
Chris Swanston
Ty Wilson
Chris Woodall
Outline
Carbon stocks
 What are FIA data?
--focus on annualized survey
--not only carbon per area but also area
--what about after the forest?
--basis for text, tabular, graphs…maps?
Prospects for the near future
--foundation for the ultimate carbon observation
system!?
Net C sequestration, Land Use Change and
Forestry for the United States
0.0
1
CO2 eq (Tg/yr)
-200.0
-400.0
Forests offset >10% of
all emissions
Other
Croplands
Settlements
Forest Products
Forest Ecosystem
-600.0
-800.0
-1,000.0
-1,200.0
2006
Forests, urban forests, and
wood burned for energy offset
18% of fossil fuel emissions
Fire emissions?
Source: EPA (2008), Inventory of US GHG emissions and sinks
(all are net sinks, no non-CO2)
National program goals for FIA
To conduct strategic forest inventories of the
United States to estimate:
•extent of forest land
volume, growth, and
removal of forest
resources; and
•health and condition
of the forest.
Over 300 million hectares of forest – 4th most forested nation in the world
Geographic
span of FIA
From the
Artic Circle
to the
Tropic of
Capricorn.
From the
Virgin
Islands to
Palau, west
of Sidney
Ground data becoming available from most of island
territories—starting again in Hawaii—southeast AK
Fast Fact: FIA operates in 12
different time zones
What kind of FIA data can inform the carbon debate?
Phase 2 - forest mensuration
-- 1 plot per 6000 acres
-- visit plot every 5 years
Phase 3 – forest health
-- each 16th P2 plot
-- soils, forest floor, down woody nationally
-- 1 plot per 96,000 acres
-- soils sampled every 2nd visit
Phase 1 – remote sensing
-- reduce variance through stratification
What kind of FIA data (continued)?
Harvested wood & products
--Utilization Studies
--Timber Products Output
Ownership survey
National Inventory & Monitoring Applications
Center
Summary table of FIA plot data
Live trees
Data available, used in
carbon estimates
Standing dead trees
Data available, used in
carbon estimates
Understory vegetation Data exists- not analyzed
Down dead wood
Forest floor
Soil carbon
Some regions every P2 plot,
not in database
Population totals not worked
out
Population totals not worked
out
Sampling frame –where locate plots?
Adopted hexagonal sampling frame
Shape allows plots to be equidistant
Shape allows for further tessellation
For US:
-- 125,000 forested P2
plots
-- 7,800 P3 plots
State of Minnesota, P2/P3 grid
FIA typically produces reports that include textual,
tabular, and graphical descriptions of the forest
resource…
70000
60000
50000
40000
30000
20000
10000
0
1
24839.2762
64687.3991
93735.1429
83128.9719
25255.7921
2
3
4
5
But what about maps?
Carbon stocks per hectare by county
Includes all forest ecosystem carbon components, based on FORCARB2 and 2002 RPA Forest Data
Maps from FIA data, other data,
and models
Soon will be many maps….
Cubist&NLCD
(Blackard et al
2008)
Some others:
Landsat
(Cohen et al)
MODIS
(Wilson et al)
2. Pilot studies
2010
2000
Nevada Photo-based Inventory
MODIS
Projectk-NN
NPIPmapping
NFS
Region
1
SAFIS/Current annual
FIA
Minnesota AFIS
1990
North Carolina mid-cycle update
Alaska 4-phase
1980
RMRS/NASA RET Program
1970
1960
NE sampling with partial replacement
Source: Czaplewski
Mapping– Scaling: Plot vs pixel-level maps
Plot-based map
Greatest Nearest Neighbor
.0001
0–5
5 – 20
20 – 30
30 - 73
Source: Rachel Riemann
Mapping estimates and
variances
Acres of forestland
Ty Wilson, in preparation
Percent sampling error
Data Delivery System -- FIDO
Precision of estimates vs. area
Median % SE vs. area of hexagon
200
180
% sampling error
160
140
%SE biomass
120
%SE volume
100
%SE area
80
%SE volume SPGRP 36
60
40
20
0
0
100000 200000 300000 400000 500000 600000
Acres
Ty Wilson, in preparation
National Inventory & Monitoring
Applications Center (NIMAC) -- in FIA
Mission: To develop forest ecosystem inventory
and monitoring methods and tools to help FIA and
other organizations monitor forests, producing
comparable results across the landscape.
Examples:
Eastern National Forests: using planning tool
Natl Forest in Missouri: 2X P2 sample and 7X P3
Wisconsin DNR: monitoring 500,000 ac State
Forests
Indiana DNR: monitoring 150,000 ac State Forests
State of Indiana lands Increased FIA plot intensity
Green dots=FIA P2 plots
Black dots=1 subplot only
Zoom into State forest
Summary…for now
FIA Data:
Poised to be a foundation
--carbon stocks, stock change, carbon fate
beyond forests, land use change
 Data are being collected annually
 Documentation, analysis, data delivery system
needs time to catch up
 Data integration/fusion with RS techniques and
modeling produce even more useful results