Monitoring Forest Dynamics in Northeastern

China in Support of GOFC

Guoqing Sun, D. L. Williams (GSFC), Jeff Masek (GSFC), Jon Ranson (GSFC), Laura Rocchio (SSAI)

The forests in Northeastern China have been undergoing dramatic changes during the last several decades due to forest fire, insect infestation, massive logging, agricultural conversion, and afforestation. These changes affect the climate, the ecosystem, the economy and living heritage in the region, and may impact the global carbon cycle.

To monitor the dynamics of the forests in the vast Northeastern region of China, this project will develop an operational forest monitoring system using satellite remote sensing data. The major components of this system include both standard and enhanced methodologies for forest cover mapping and change detection within a PC-based GIS database. Landsat-5 & 7, SAR and MODIS data have been used for generation of forest characteristics base maps and for change detection for the region. The high-resolution IKONOS images, forest management maps (1:50000), and field observations provide ground truth for training and validation. The derived forest cover and change maps are being analyzed to estimate the impact of land cover land use change on environment, ecology and carbon storage.

Partners in this project include Institute of Forest Resource Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Satellite Ground Station of China, Chinese Academy of Science, Institute of Remote Sensing Applications, and Northeast Institute of Geography and Agricultural Ecology, CAS.

For more information contact Guoqing Sun at guoqing@aspen.gsfc.nasa.gov.