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»FAO Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA 2010), Remote
Sensing Survey
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and its member countries and
partners will conduct a global remote sensing survey of forests. This is part of the Global Forest
Resources Assessment 2010 (FRA 2010).
For more information on the FRA 2010 and the Remote Sensing Survey, visit:
< http://www.fao.org/forestry/fra2010-remotesensing/en/ >,
and < http://www.fao.org/forestry/media/16300/1/0/ >
(brochure),
» Global Observation of Forest and Land Cover Dynamics
(GOFC-GOLD)
GOFC-GOLD is a panel of GTOS (Global Terrestrial Observing System) and its overall objective
is to improve the quality and availability of observations of forests and land cover at regional
and global scales and to produce useful, timely and validated information products from these data
for a wide variety of users.
For more information on GOFC-GOLD, visit:
< http://www.fao.org/gtos/gofc-gold/ >
GOFC-GOLD provides a sourcebook on methods and procedures for monitoring, measuring and
reporting activities related to REDD. Find more information about the
GOFC-GOLD REDD sourcebook under:
< Other
Methodologies and Tools >
In partnership with the Government of Norway, GOFC-GOLD has carried out a study to understand the
needs to monitor REDD in the world's tropical forests. This study examines, in
99 tropical non-Annex I countries, the current monitoring capabilities and the availability of
remote sensing data and makes specific recommendations for the near term capacity development
activities that would be required to implement an accurate forest area change and carbon monitoring
system. Find more information about this study at:
< http://www.gofcgold.wur.nl/redd/ >
and under: < Other Methodologies and Tools >
» U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA)
NASA’s Land-cover and Land-Use Change (LCLUC) program within its Earth Science Enterprise
seeks to further the scientific understanding of the consequences of land-cover and land-use change
for continued provision of ecological goods and services, the carbon and water cycles and the
management of natural resources. It uses NASA’s remote sensing technology to monitor
global land cover change and improve understanding of human interaction with the environment, and
thus provide a scientific foundation for sustainability, vulnerability and resilience of land
systems and their use.
NASA LCLUC is also involved in a joint initiative with the US Geological Survey (USGS), called the
“Global Land Survey” (GLS). Moderate resolution (c. 30m) data are useful for
monitoring forest change, but the cost of using such data has been prohibitively high for some
resources managers and scientists working in tropical forest countries. GLS will make freely
available a global time-series of moderate resolution satellite data, preprocessed to be directly
comparable between dates (orthorectified) for studying forest and land cover change.
Currently NASA and USGS are generating a data set for c. 2005, which will complement previous
global data sets for 1980, 1990, and 2000. The plan for the 2010 data set is to develop this
into an international initiative in the framework of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), by
including data from various international satellites of similar resolution. Partnerships are
currently being sought for this international collaboration.
NASA LCLUC also supports several large regional science campaigns and programs, including the Large
Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia, the Central African Regional Program for the
Environment, the Northern Eurasian Earth Science Partnership Initiative, and the Monsoon Asia
Integrated Regional Study. LCLUC is also a contributor to the international Global
Observation of Forest and Land Cover Dynamics (GOFC-GOLD) program, a project of the Global
Terrestrial Observing System (GTOS).
For more information on NASA’s LULUC program, visit:
< http://lcluc.umd.edu/index.asp >
» U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
USGS has a record of partnerships with developing countries studying land use, resource management,
and climate related issues. The international science team at the USGS' Earth Resources
Observation and Science Center (EROS) has cooperative projects with developing countries, using
satellite based data to monitor the changes to land cover features. Additionally, the North
American Node of UNEP GRID, located at the USGS EROS Center, is in the forefront of applying
information technology tools such as remote sensing, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and web
mapping to address the relationships between the environment and human populations. Utilizing the
expert knowledge of staff and visiting scientists, the information created with these tools provide
policy-makers a scientific basis for making decisions.
USGS is also releasing satellite data at no cost. By the end of 2008 the entire archive of
data collected from the Landsat series, as far back as 1972 and current daily new acquisitions,
will be available over the Internet. This release will make land observation data available
to a global science community for monitoring land surface changes over a multi-decade period.
Landsat scenes can be previewed and downloaded using the USGS Global Visualization Viewer at <
http://glovis.usgs.gov > or through Earth Explorer
at < http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov >.
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