Cornell Forest Connect will hold 2 one-hour Mapping and Monitoring Forest Biomass and Carbon Benefits webinars on January 19th at noon and 7 pm.
Among the many benefits that forests provide, there is rapidly growing attention to their capacity to mitigate climate change via carbon sequestration and storage in vegetation, soils and harvested wood products.
At present, the US Forest Inventory & Analysis (FIA) program uses their extensive plot network to produce annual, state-level estimates of forest carbon stocks and sequestration rates for the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program. While useful for a high-level look at status and trends in the forest carbon sink, FIA’s approach does not provide the fine-scale geographic detail needed for small area estimation, which limits its utility for a range of decision-making applications, especially at parcel scales.
In these webinars, Dr. Colin Beier from SUNY – ESFI will describe the ongoing development of a NY Forest Carbon Assessment system that combines FIA with remote-sensing data, including airborne laser scanning (LIDAR) and satellite imagery, with machine-learning techniques to generate wall-to-wall (statewide) and high-resolution maps of forest biomass and carbon stocks and their changes over time (both historical and forward-facing).
Built in partnership with FIA, NYSDEC and private forest landowners, this system is designed to serve as the informational backbone to NY’s efforts to strengthen and sustain the forest carbon sink, in balance with many other forest benefits and values, as mandated by state climate law. The data used in this webinar are specific to NY, but concepts and principles have broad geographic application.
To register for one of these webinars, you need to obtain your registration ID via: https://cornell.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_5IRFqn7oSYm5D-Vyqb8-3Q
If prompted for a password use “Cornell”.