The National Carbon Project was implemented as a set of three
inter-related sub-projects and recent results from different sub
projects and challenges ahead of the project are presented in the
paper.
2. VEGETATION CARBON POOLS
The vegetation carbon pools assessment was carried out with
the following two objectives:
» Assessment of terrestrial vegetation biomass in the country
using ground sampling and satellite remote sensing data
» To generate geospatial data of the terrestrial phyto mass
Carbon of India along with estimates of uncertainty.
2.1 Vegetation Carbon Pools1 (VCP)
As part of (VCP), an optimal phytomass density observation,
modeling and mapping approach for national-scale forest
carbon pool assessment was defined. A total of 6500 field plot
data from forests and trees outside forests was collected with
defined sampling protocols. The forest density, vegetation type
map, accessibility (nearness to road), normalized difference
vegetation index and district boundary have been used to select
sites for sampling. 2,350 permanent sample plots were
identified for further monitoring as well as for quality
assurance. 753 regional species volume equations and general
equations were collated. Specific gravity data of 16,400 species
of the Asia has been collected. Specific gravity of 86 fire wood
trees and shrub growing in wasteland/degraded sites has been
added. A geo-referenced relational database of plot wise forest
inventory and biomass density estimates was prepared. Figure 1
shows the various methods of generating spatial biomass map
that is being employed as per the regional suitability and
availability of data types.
$5
C... f 6500 field plot data
x S 250 permanent glare
€ Spatially explicit
above ground forest
5. carbon (5x5km) South
I Western Ghats
0.2-::] 5-4 di 40-2 883 20.308888 30)
Figure 1: Methods for generating biomass image using various
remote sensing sensor data and ground inventory data
Pilot studies in 16 test-sites in different ecological regions in
the country have been taken to test the methodology for
biomass estimation and spectral modeling using optical and
microwave data in forest ecosystem. End-to-end analyses at
eight sites have been completed. Interferometric Water Cloud
Model (IWCM) has been successfully applied for forest
biomass retrieval in Dudhwa National Park (Pandey et al.,
2010). Similarly the plot-wise field data from south Gujarat
(Patil et al., 2012) was aggregated to MODIS pixel (250 m)
International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume XXXIX-B8, 2012
XXII ISPRS Congress, 25 August — 01 September 2012, Melbourne, Australia
using area weightages of forest/vegetation. The study reports
that above ground phytomass varied from 6.13 t/ha to
389.166 t/ha. The contribution of bamboo in AGB has been
found very high. The phytomass range obtained by using
MODIS data varies from 0.147 t/ha to 182.16 t/ha.
Recent estimates found that conservation policies have resulted
in increase of the country's forest carbon stocks from 6244.8 to
6621.6 Mt with an annual increment of 37.7 Mt of the carbon
from 1995 to 2005 (Kishwan et al, 2011). Spatial explicit
biomass estimation procedures were also tested to quantify
biomass distribution in Orissa state using data mining
techniques. The study involved evaluating the relationship
between basal area and stand height collected over 17,500 plots
and different spatial information on multi temporal spectral
data, terrain, climate, forest type and crown density using
random forest decision tree algorithm.
2.1.1 Crop NPP (above and below ground) from
historical agricultural statistics data:
Vegetation Photosynthesis Model (VPM) based on original
Monteith's growth analysis approach is implemented to derive
decadal and annual dry matter productivity over cropland of
India. Solar radiation databases over Indian sub-continent were
generated using monthly MODIS derived cloud cover using
Angstrom & Prescott Model. Spatially explicit fields of time-
varying incident Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR)
and fraction of PAR were derived from remote sensing data.
Fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation was
computed based on linear scaling of NDVI and chlorophyll
related Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI). Spatial distribution
of maximum light use efficiency is derived by adjusting for
spatially varying proportion of crop groups such as C3 and C4
crops. Environmental stress scalars for adjusting potential
productivity were derived from combination of daily grided
climate from IMD and decadal RS based land surface wetness
indices. (Patel et al., 2010 and Wani et al., 2010).
2.2 Soil Carbon Pools
Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) is the largest terrestrial carbon
pool. Soil can be a source of (CO,, CHy, and N,0) or sink (CO,
and CH,) of greenhouse gases depending on land use and
management (Lal, 1999). As part of Second national
communication of India, forest soil pool estimates of 3.51 Pg
and 3.75 Pg for the 1995 and 2005 respectively were reported
using 657 soil samples (Kishwan et al., 2011). In order to bring
out further reliable estimates on soil C pools, soil sample data
for about 1500 locations is collected across India out of which
about 600 are forest soil samples. A geospatial frame work is
being developed to integrate field data with LULC, topography
and drainage information to assess the soil Carbon Pools.
(Krishan et al., 2009 and Velmurugan et al., 2009). Chhabra et
al, 2003 prepared a database of published measurements of
soil organic carbon containing information on location, soil
type, texture, measured/estimated bulk density and forest type
in Indian forests. It was used for estimating soil organic carbon
densities for various forest types for two-depth classes (0-50
and 0—100 cm). The mean soil organic carbon density estimates
for top 50 cm based on 175 observations ranged from 37.5 t/ha
in tropical dry deciduous forest to 92.1 t/ha in littoral and
swamp forest. The mean soil organic carbon density estimates
based on 136 observations ranged from 70 t/ha in tropical dry
deciduous forest to 162 t/ha in montane temperate forest for top
1 m soil depth.
Inte
23:35
The t
unbia:
2001)
appro
(Sund
(NCP
tower
meası
covar
is pla
Carbc
objec
Figui
the aj
Thre:
Uttar
estab
(Fig
meas
flux
Site
mode
autor
One
flux
Mod
atmo
gene
