Prospects for using Forest Inventory and Analysis

and related data for monitoring forest carbon offsets

Linda S. HeathUSDA Forest ServiceNorthern Research Station, FIAForest Carbon Accounting and ResearchDurham, NH

Forest and Agriculture GHG Forum, Shepardstown, WV, April 6-9, 2009

Acknowledgments:

Rich Birdsey Ken BrewerRay CzaplewskiAndy ListerHobie Perry Rachel RiemannChip ScottBrad SmithJim SmithChris Swanston Ty WilsonChris 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!?

-1,200.0

-1,000.0

-800.0

-600.0

-400.0

-200.0

0.0

1

2006

CO

2 eq

(T

g/y

r)

Other

Croplands

Settlements

Forest Products

Forest Ecosystem

Source: EPA (2008), Inventory of US GHG emissions and sinks (all are net sinks, no non-CO2)

Net C sequestration, Land Use Change and Forestry for the United States

Forests offset >10% of all emissions

Forests, urban forests, andwood burned for energy offset18% of fossil fuel emissions

Fire emissions?

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.

Geographic span of FIA

From the Artic Circle

to the Tropic of

Capricorn.

From the Virgin

Islands to Palau, west of Sidney

Fast Fact: FIA operates in 12 different time zones

Over 300 million hectares of forest – 4th most forested nation in the world

Ground data becoming available from most of islandterritories—starting again in Hawaii—southeast AK

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 can inform the carbon debate?

Harvested wood & products

--Utilization Studies

--Timber Products Output

Ownership survey

National Inventory & Monitoring Applications Center

What kind of FIA data (continued)?

Summary table of FIA plot dataLive 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 Some regions every P2 plot, not in database

Forest floor Population totals not worked out

Soil carbon 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

State of Minnesota, P2/P3 grid

For US: -- 125,000 forested P2 plots -- 7,800 P3 plots

FIA typically produces reports that include textual, tabular, and graphical descriptions of the forest resource…

64687.3991

83128.9719

25255.7921

93735.1429

24839.2762

0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

70000

1 2 3 4 5

Includes all forest ecosystem carbon components, based on FORCARB2 and 2002 RPA Forest Data

Carbon stocks per hectare by county

But what about maps?

Maps from FIA data, other data, and models

Cubist&NLCD (Blackard et al

2008)

Some others: Landsat (Cohen et al)

MODIS (Wilson et al)

Soon will be many maps….

2. Pilot studies

1960

1970

1980

2000

2010

1990

NE sampling with partial replacement

RMRS/NASA RET Program

Alaska 4-phase

SAFIS/Current annual FIA

North Carolina mid-cycle update

Minnesota AFIS

NFS Region 1MODIS k-NN mapping

Nevada Photo-based Inventory Project NPIP

FIA has tested a lot of

novel RS technologies

Source: Czaplewski

Plot-based mapMapping– Scaling: Plot vs pixel-level maps

.0001

0 – 5

5 – 20

20 – 30

30 - 73

Source: Rachel Riemann

Greatest Nearest Neighbor

Mapping estimates and variances

Acres of forestland Percent sampling error

Ty Wilson, in preparation Data Delivery System -- FIDO

Precision of estimates vs. area

Ty Wilson, in preparation

Median %SE vs. area of hexagon

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

0 100000 200000 300000 400000 500000 600000

Acres

% s

amp

lin

g e

rro

r

%SE biomass

%SE volume

%SE area

%SE volume SPGRP 36

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 toolNatl Forest in Missouri: 2X P2 sample and 7X P3Wisconsin DNR: monitoring 500,000 ac State ForestsIndiana DNR: monitoring 150,000 ac State Forests

State of Indiana lands - Increased FIA plot intensity

Zoom into State forestGreen dots=FIA P2 plotsBlack dots=1 subplot only

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