ZAPÁS

The mission of the Siberian Earth System Science Cluster (Sib-ESS-C) is to provide a web-based infrastructure and comprehensive information products derived from Earth Observation that support environmental and earth system research in Siberia. The ZAPÁS project is closely linked to the SIB-ESS-C developments and uses its capabilities by integrating local and regional sclale forest resource maps and using the SIB-ESS-C land dynamics analyses tools.

After developing regional and local scale forest resource maps based on optical and SAR satellite data, all geoinformation products are now integrated in the SIB-ESS-C geoportal. The portal can be used to apply the so-called multi-resolution concept in earth observation. In the case of the ZAPÁS initiative, state and dynamics of forest resourcees can be assessed for the Central Siberian test region.

Deforestation Map based on four years of growing stock volume assessments (2007 - 2010) overlain Google Earth imagery. The red patches show abrupt reduction of biomass indicating mainly deforestation patterns of large scale logging areas and some fire patches. Source: SIB-ESS-C.

The complete set of EO-based forest resource maps related to biomass and forest cover tracking is accessable via the SIB-ESS-C Geoportal. The basic funcions are explained in a tutorial. To access the ZAPÁS products click on ZAPÁS in the Study Areas section of the Data Catalog. More »

The two days ZAPÁS validation workshop started on Tuesday 14 May with a welcoming by Anatoly Shvidenko followed by a project status presentation given by Christian Hüttich. The Meeting aimed to prepare a road map for the next steps, in particular how to operationalize and implement developed methods, derive product validation information and prepare the task on terrestrial carbon accounting for Central Siberia.

ZAPÁS consortium at IIASA, Laxenburg

The status of the available forest inventory was presented by Mikhail Korets. The inventory could be provided for all local test sites. It was stated that in some cases the old inventory is (probably) more accurate than the most recent update. Reasons could be that information was eventually transferred from old maps from the 70ies. The local scale mapping (methods and products) was presented by the FSU team. More »