A research group has succeeded in creating a map of above-ground forest carbon stocks (biomass) across Japan at a high resolution of 10m x 10m per pixel. Source: Timberbiz
The group consisted of Professor Tomomichi Kato of the Graduate School of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, and Mr Hantao Li (currently doctoral student at the Graduate School of Agriculture and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo), the Graduate School of Agriculture and Life Science the University of Tokyo, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and George Mason University in the United States.
In this study, data from satellites such as PALSAR-2 (mounted on JAXA’s Daichi-2) and Sentinel-2 (European Space Agency) were used as input, and above-ground forest biomass measurement data from airborne laser surveying1 was trained into a machine learning model2, making it possible to create a map with a resolution rarely seen anywhere in the world.
The total amount of above-ground forest carbon stocks across the country based on this study was 1440±565 T (Tera = 10 to the power of 12) g Carbon (1.44±565 million tons of carbon). This is smaller than the estimates from conventional nationwide ground surveys. The forest above-ground carbon stock map created this time will be made public on the JAXA website along with forest above-ground biomass, timber volume, and tree height
allowing anyone to estimate above-ground forest carbon stocks in any region. This is expected to make it much easier to estimate carbon credits in forests owned by small municipalities, companies, and individuals, where measurement has previously been difficult due to human and financial constraints.
The results of this research were published online in the natural sciences journal Remote Sensing of Environment.
In Japan, forest carbon stocks have been estimated nationwide from statistical data such as forest registers (lists of tree species and forest ages), but these estimates do not match the current situation because they are not actual measurements.
