Volume 24, Issue 1, June 2016, Pages 161–178
Jean-fiston Mikwa1, Rudi Gossens2, and Pierre Defourny3
1 Faculté des Gestions des Ressources Naturelles Renouvelables, Université de Kisangani, BP 2012, Kisangani, RD Congo
2 Département de géographie, Ghent University, Belgium
3 Research Unit in Environmental and Geomatics, Université Catholique de Louvain, ENGE, Croix du Sud 2, bte. 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Original language: English
Copyright © 2016 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Measuring all carbon stock changes caused by forest degradation within a country at the same level of detail and accuracy will likely not be efficient. In particular the considerations of IPCC source category analysis, and the fact that many degradation activities are focused on specific areas within the country help to make the monitoring more targeted and efficient to capture the most important components with priority. To estimate forest degradation, countries need to assess carbon stock changes and the total area undergoing degradation, ideally for different types of degradation (i.e. fire, logging, and fuel wood harvesting). The assessment of changes in carbon stocks requires consistent ground data while the evaluation of the total area undergoing degradation is more reliably measured through remote sensing for the major degradation processes, in particular for developing countries. The particular problem of measuring forest degradation is the lack of field based forest data for developing countries.
Author Keywords: Forest degradation, remote sensing techniques.
Jean-fiston Mikwa1, Rudi Gossens2, and Pierre Defourny3
1 Faculté des Gestions des Ressources Naturelles Renouvelables, Université de Kisangani, BP 2012, Kisangani, RD Congo
2 Département de géographie, Ghent University, Belgium
3 Research Unit in Environmental and Geomatics, Université Catholique de Louvain, ENGE, Croix du Sud 2, bte. 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Original language: English
Copyright © 2016 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Measuring all carbon stock changes caused by forest degradation within a country at the same level of detail and accuracy will likely not be efficient. In particular the considerations of IPCC source category analysis, and the fact that many degradation activities are focused on specific areas within the country help to make the monitoring more targeted and efficient to capture the most important components with priority. To estimate forest degradation, countries need to assess carbon stock changes and the total area undergoing degradation, ideally for different types of degradation (i.e. fire, logging, and fuel wood harvesting). The assessment of changes in carbon stocks requires consistent ground data while the evaluation of the total area undergoing degradation is more reliably measured through remote sensing for the major degradation processes, in particular for developing countries. The particular problem of measuring forest degradation is the lack of field based forest data for developing countries.
Author Keywords: Forest degradation, remote sensing techniques.
How to Cite this Article
Jean-fiston Mikwa, Rudi Gossens, and Pierre Defourny, “Forest degradation, a methodological approach using remote sensing techniques: A review,” International Journal of Innovation and Scientific Research, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 161–178, June 2016.
