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| Assessment of Carbon Stocks of Moist Temperate Forests of Pakistan using Remote Sensing Methods and Forest Inventory |
| Mehwish Ali* |
| Javed Iqbal** |
| Syed Moazzam Nizami*** |
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| Carbon sequestration is an effective means for
alleviating the effects of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere. The
present study was designed to quantify carbon stocks in moist temperate forests
of Pakistan for efficient reporting to Kyoto Protocol. Remote sensing and GIS
techniques were employed for estimation of carbon stocks of the Bhurban Forest
during a time period from 2010-2011.The specific objectives of the study were
to estimate total wood volume, biomass and carbon content in the forest stand
using multi-spectral satellite imagery and spatial statistical techniques. For
estimation of wood volume, forest inventory was performed for 20 sample plots
of 100m2. Spot 2.5m Pan-sharpened Multi-spectral satellite imagery was
acquired to model a statistical relationship between wood volume and image’s
reflectance values and a moderately positive correlation was observed with
R=0.62. Multivariate Regression Model predicted the total wood volume in the
forest to be 600.43 m3 with RMSE=48.6 % and R= 0.76. Using biomass conversion
factors, biomass content of the forest was yielded which helped to enumerate
aboveground carbon content of forest. The study also took into account
estimation of soil carbon stocks of forest at depths of 0-10cm and 10-20 cm.
Inverse distance weighted Interpolation Technique (IDW) was employed to
interpolate soil carbon values for the entire study area. Results indicated
that total biomass content and total carbon (Tree + Soil) in the forest is 251
t/ha and 129 + 13.5 t/ha respectively. It was accomplished that soil carbon
equals to 10% of aboveground carbon pool of the forest. It was concluded that
use of remote sensing techniques is a time efficient and reliable approach for
carbon stock estimation in forests. Remote sensing methods are also recommended
for carbon pool estimates for other forest types of Pakistan and for assessment
of spatio-temporal factors involved in carbon fluxes of forests.
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Ms. Mehwish Ali is from the Institute of
Geographical Information Systems, National University of Sciences and
Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan.
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Mr. Javed Iqbal is from the Institute of
Geographical Information Systems, National University of Sciences and
Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan.
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Syed Moazzam Nizami belongs to the Department of
Forestry & Range Management, PMAS Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi,
Pakistan.
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