Observing Forest Biomass Globally

22. June 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Allgemein

The recent Earthzine article points on the importance of the global observation of forest biomass (by Dmitry Schepaschenko).

Taiga in Central Siberia, Eastern Baikal Region (photo by Martyna Stelmaszczuk)

Terrestrial biomass is considered as an essential indicator for the monitoring of the Earth’s ecosystem and climate. In recent years, many regional biomass datasets have been produced. These were obtained using a wide range of methods — from pure remote sensing RS to the collection of field measurements. The Biomass Geo-Wiki is a new tool from the family of Geo-Wiki.org, which has been launched to bring together different biomass datasets so that they can be viewed and compared with high resolution imagery on Google Earth. The ultimate goal is to perform gap analysis, cross-product validation, harmonization and hybrid product development leading to improved global biomass datasets in the future. Read more…

Summer 2012 Wildfires over Siberia

20. June 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Allgemein

As stated by the Nasa Earth Observatory, on June 18, 2012,  a total of 198 wildfires burned across Russia and had charred an area that covered 8,330 hectares. Also RT News announced that the state of emergency was declared in parts of Siberia:

A state of emergency has been declared in several eastern regions, where
hundreds of wildfires are now raging.

The wildfires cover an 8,331-hectare area in total, according to the
Siberian Federal District Forestry Department. Around 1,600 people and
42 planes are now fighting the fires.

According to Greenpeace, the situation is worse now than at the same
time in the summer of 2010, when Russia was devastated by forest fires.

ZAPÁS presented at the 17th K&C Science Team meeting

23. April 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Allgemein, Meeting

In the framework of the participation of the FSU’s Department of Earth observation in the Kyoto & Carbon initiative – an international science collaboration led by JAXA – the ZAPÁS project was introduced to the community at the 17th K&C science meeting on March 27-29, 2012 in Tokyo. The ALOS Kyoto & Carbon Initiative is an international collaborative project forming the continuation and extension of the JERS-1 SAR GRFM/GBFM project into the era of ALOS and ALOS-2. The ZAPÁS activities will foster the development of methodology guidelines for forest and biomass mapping by SAR. More »

ZAPÁS Inauguration event on March 22, 2012 in Moscow

23. April 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Meeting

A public project inauguration event was held in Moscow on 22 March 2012. The meeting was hosted at the Research Center for Earth Operative Monitoring of the Joint Stock Company “Russian Space Systems” (NTsOMZ). The meeting aimed at informing the Russian user community about the ZAPÁS forest monitoring activities in Central Siberia. Following the ESA-ROSKOSMOS Data Exchange Agreement the main objectives for this public event was to demonstrate recent synergies of exchanging EU-Russian know-how on advanced earth observation for forestry applications. More »

Geo-Wiki

23. February 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Allgemein

The Russia.Geo-Wiki is a branch of the global Geo-Wiki Project. It provides a platform to visualize and validate land cover maps for Russia. Land cover is a crucial dataset for many ecological tasks. Since large differences occur between existing land cover maps, current ecosystem and land-use science lacks crucial accurate data. Volunteers are asked to review hotspot maps and determine, based on what they actually see in Google Earth and their local knowledge, if the land cover maps are correct or incorrect. Their input is recorded in a database, along with uploaded photos, to be used in the future for the creation of a new and improved land cover map.
In addition, Russia.Geo-Wiki presents regional carbon pool datasets, and makes them freely available for visualization, all overlaid on the Google Earth platform.

The Biomass.Geo-Wiki presents a collection of global, regional and in-situ biomass datasets produced by a number of institutions, overlaid on the Google Earth platform. The goal is to perform gap analysis, cross-product validation, possible harmonization and hybrid product development.

 

First ZAPÁS Newsletter released

18. January 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Allgemein

The first issue of quarterly updated newsletters is released. The current issue addresses the ZAPÁS concept and objectives description and issues the goal of supporting a worldwide Forest Observation System. Some impressions from the Kick-off meeting in Krasnoyarsk (Russia) and the presence at the recent AGU and GEO Meetings are provided.

Get the ZAPAS Newsletter No.1.

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