Transcript Geospatial Applications in Forest Resource Assessment of Nepal Prakash Mathema Director General Department of Forest Research and Survey Government of Nepal India Geospatial Forum Hyderabad, India 11 February.

Geospatial Applications in Forest Resource
Assessment of Nepal
Prakash Mathema
Director General
Department of Forest Research and Survey
Government of Nepal
India Geospatial Forum
Hyderabad, India
11 February 2015
Brief overview of FRA of Nepal
 2010-2014
 Implemented by DFRS with Support from Finnish Government
Salient Features
 Comprehensive forest resource data generation: forest stock, spatial
coverage, soil characteristics and biodiversity
 Every sample plot is a permanent plot
 Protected area also included in sample sites (unlike previous NFIs)
 Focus on open source programmes and tools
 Improved forest resources information sharing mechanism (OSFIS
Component – Open Source Forest Information System).
 Use of geospatial methods for aiding forest resource assessment
Major Applications
 Navigation to plot for tree measurement and soil sample collection
(Latest RapidEye satellite image (5m spatial resolution) map used
together with GPS for navigating to sample plots)
 Wall-to-wall forest cover mapping done using hybrid approach
(object based image segmentation, machine learning classification
and validation of polygons with human interpretation)
 Forest type classification (Landsat image 2013/14, image
segmentation and Classification and Regression Tree (CART) approach
used, validation sample from measured field plot datasets across
Nepal)
 Piloting of LiDAR assisted forest biomass assessment for part of
Western Nepal Terai
Navigation to sample plot
Location of sample plots across Nepal
Sample plot layout
Navigation and plot measurement
Wall-to-wall forest cover mapping
RapidEye (2010/11) tiles
Wall-to-wall Forest Cover Map
Forest type classification
Landsat 8 Scenes (2013/14) covering Nepal
LiDAR: Quantifying the forest carbon with laser
scanning
Terai Arc Landscape Districts
Blocks covering 5 % of the study area (LiDAR scanned sample)
1st (and
only)
return
from
ground
1st
return
from
tree top
2nd return
from
branches
3rd
return
from
ground
Field Plot
Airborne Laser scanning
Scanning equipment
Field data collection
Field data against the simulated LiDAR estimates
Key future activities
 Wall-to-wall National Land Cover Data using LANDSAT 8 and
supplementary images aligned with country’s REDD+MRV
mechanism every two years from 2016
 Biomass model development in selected Verification Sites
using very high resolution optical imageries with support of
radar imageries
 3 sites in 2015 and 4 sites in 2016
 Monitoring of rapid deforestations and degradation sites
using LANDSAT 8 and VHR images (e.g. CARTOSAT)
Required data types
 Wall-to-wall Optical mid resolution, e.g. LANDSAT 8
 Wall-to-wall radar data for southern Terai and Churia
physiographic regions
 VHR e.g. CARTOSAT/World View/Geoeye imageries for
verification sites /degradation study sites/deforestation
hotspots
Areas needing collaboration
 Wall-to-wall biomass modelling and estimation of forest
carbon
 Assessment and mapping of forest degradation using
Optical and SAR data or any other proven methodology
 Study on regional scale forest ecosystem modelling
 Capacity building
Thanks for your attention