Determination of above ground carbon in Canada's forests-a multi-source approach

Canada is a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol and must report on reforestation, afforestation and deforestation activities since 1990. Reporting commitments also include a baseline estimate of forest carbon stocks in 1990 and the monitoring of changes in carbon stocks leading up to the reporting period 2008 to 2012. Canada has 10% of the world's forests (418 million hectares), which account for a significant amount of stored carbon. The determination of above-ground carbon stocks in the forest can be based on several sources: remote sensing, models of vegetation growth, book-keeping carbon models, and traditional forest inventories. Estimating above-ground carbon with remote sensing requires the fusion and integration of remote sensing data with topographic, forest cover and other geospatial information. Multi-temporal LANDSAT TM imagery was used in conjunction with GIS data to compute above-ground biomass from which the carbon content is determined. In addition to biomass, other key factors, which play a role in the determination of carbon stocks, include species and age distribution, forest structure, and climate variables. The paper reports on remote sensing experiments to determine the above-ground carbon stocks for a test site near Hinton, Alberta, Canada. It is expected that this approach will be useful in supporting Canada's reporting commitments on the sustainability its forest resources.