Integrating Lidar Canopy Height and Landsat-based Forest Disturbance History with Ecosystem Demography Model for Carbon Change Estimation, A Case in Charles County, Maryland

Maosheng Zhao, Department of Geographical Sciences, zhaoms@umd.edu (Presenter)
Chengquan Huang, Department of Geographical Sciences, gchurtt@umd.edu
George Hurtt, Department of Geographical Sciences, gchurtt@umd.edu
Ralph Dubayah, Department of Geographical Sciences, cqhuang@umd.edu
Justin Fisk, Department of Geographical Sciences, fisk@umd.edu
Anu Swatantran, Department of Geographical Sciences, aswatan@umd.edu
Wenli Huang, Department of Geographical Sciences, wlhuang@umd.edu
Hao Tang, Department of Geographical Sciences, htang@umd.edu

Forest stands are generally in a status from the severely disturbed (almost no live woody biomass), or the partially damaged, to different stages of recovery and to maturity. To estimate realistic changes of carbon stock and fluxes of a disturbed forest stand, both pre-disturbance ecosystem status and the extent and severity of disturbance need to be known. Here we show a prototype work to achieve this by integrating small foot-print Lidar data, forest disturbance derived from Landsat Vegetation Change Tracker (VCT), and an individual-based structure height Ecosystem Demography (ED) model. Our study area is Charles County, Maryland, due to its natural disturbances and less land use change following the disturbances. Lidar provides critical information on forest canopy height, improving the accuracy of forest biomass estimates prior to disturbance; Long-term Landsat data provide valuable information on wall-to-wall disturbance extent and severity; ED model plays a central role by linking both Lidar canopy height and Landsat disturbances with ecosystem processes. Our integration system could provide more realistic wall-to-wall carbon stock and fluxes change for dynamic forest ecosystems.

Presentation Type:  Poster

Session:  Carbon Monitoring System (CMS) Posters   (Mon 1:30 PM)

Associated Project(s): 

• Dubayah, Ralph: Combining lidar/radar fusion, allometric scaling theory, and ecosystem modeling for improved estimation of forest biomass, structure and dynamics ...details
• Dubayah, Ralph: Development of a Prototype MRV System to Support Carbon Ecomarket Infrastructure in Sonoma County ...details
• Dubayah, Ralph: Exploring the Potential of Single Photon Lidar for Ecosystem Structure Derivation ...details
• Dubayah, Ralph: High Resolution Carbon Monitoring and Modeling: A CMS Phase 2 Study ...details
• Dubayah, Ralph: Integrating Vegetation 3D Structure and Ecological modeling for Continental Scale Assessments of Biodiversity, Biomass and Disturbance ...details
• Huang, Cheng: Assessment of North American Industrial Forests: Disturbances, Biomass Extraction, and Growth Vigor ...details
• Huang, Cheng: Integration of long term Landsat observations with DESDynI measurements for monitoring terrestrial carbon fluxes within and beyond the DESDynI mission ...details
• Huang, Cheng: Role of Forest Disturbance and Regrowth in the US Carbon Budget ...details
• Hurtt, George: High-Resolution Carbon Monitoring and Modeling: Continuing Prototype Development and Deployment ...details
• Hurtt, George: Modeling the impacts of major forest disturbances on the Earth's coupled carbon-climate system, and the capacity of forests to meet future demands for wood, fuel, and fiber ...details
• Hurtt, George: Using NASA Remote Sensing and Models to Advance Integrated Assessments of Coupled Human-Forest Dynamics for North America ...details

Poster Location ID: 147