Remote Sensing (RS) Science and Applications in the CFS

Presenters: Jeff Dechka, Ron Hall, Mike Wulder

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CFS RS Investments (2014-15)

Cornerbrook

0 RES, 1 OtherSalary $98KO&M $0Leveraging $115K

1 RES, 1 OtherSalary $188KO&M $11 KLeveraging $50K

1 RES, 2 Other Salary $270KO&M $11KLeveraging $50 K1 RES, 2 Other

Salary $279KO&M $11KLeveraging $70K

4 RES, 4 Other Salary $868KO&M $37KLeveraging $625 K 2

CFS’ RS Landscape

Staff 7 RES 10 Professional

Salaries RES Salary - $778K Professional Salary - $926K

A-Base O&M - $70K (in NFIA) OGD Leverage - $910K (Funding)

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Main Federal Collaborators

Canadian Space Agency (CSA) Financial support for applications development

Environment Canada (EC) UNFCCC and NIR (GHG) reporting Support EC on forestry related to the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) collaboration with EC MSC on sharing fire information and land cover data

Agriculture and Agri-foods Canada (AAFC) NFI, NIR, UNFCCC through deforestation/land use/cover

NRCan-ESS Data preparation and automation Scientific collaboration (e.g. Fire)

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Why CFS Relies on RS Solutions

Canada’s vast and diverse forests present challenges for measuring and monitoring. 1000M ha of land 600M ha forest ecosystem 400M ha forested lands

Opportunity for Innovative Solutions Cost effective, repeatable analyses of forest status and trends

RS is an enabling tool for a variety of CFS work NFI, Carbon, Climate Change, Forest Change, CBFA,

Enhanced Inventory, Markets, SoF, Fire, etc. Supports and connects industry, academia, federal, provincial

and territorial partners5

• National Forest Inventory

RS provides timely and up-to-date information to help meet Canada's national and international reporting commitments (SoF, FRA, UNFCCC, CBD)

CFS RS research focuses on new

RS methodologies to enhance the NFI

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Map in SoF 2015Generated using RS

and NFI

Selected RS Solutions - 1

• Multisource Vegetation Inventory in NWT Integrates field, aerial, LiDAR, and satellite data for forest

inventory Central for carbon accounting,

NFI update, NWT inventory

needs & SFM indicators CFS research with NoFC, LFC

& PFC on national maps

Selected RS Solutions - 2

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• FireMARS: National Burned Area Composite Annual mapping of burned areas since 2004 Input to Carbon Accounting to compute C emissions Integrating with NFI Future new forest

change indicator

on area burned Input to EC

Nat’l disturbance Result of NRCan

CFS-ESS collaboration.

Selected RS Applications - 3

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Cumulative Forest Changes 2000-2011

Enhanced Forest Inventory (EFI) Improved industry decision-making

Tree heights Volume Biomass Merchantable timber Road development

CWFC, AFC (Corner Brook)

and PFC

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Canopy Model

Elevation Model

Selected RS Applications - 4

Deforestation Mapping and Reporting Changes in land use Various RS data sets Supports NFI and carbon UNFCCC, EC NIR SoF, provincial/territorial

summaries. Supported BC’s zero

deforestation policy.

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Selected RS Applications - 5

Benefits to CFS

Supports a variety of activities in CFS – Climate change, markets, ecosystems, disturbances (fire, insects, anthropogenic) etc.

Forest cover change Deforestation can be mapped at a regional or national scale. Fire can be mapped annually (National Burn Area Composite). Disturbances from 1980’s to present.

Collaboration with the provinces on NFI permits leveraging $2M of RS data (aerial photography, satellite imagery)

Enhanced Forest Inventory CWFC case study - LiDAR saved $800K for Romeo Malette

Forest (Timmins, Ont.) Other companies moving towards LiDAR.

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Summary

RS is indispensable and evolutionary Important to CFS

Needed for EIO, DIO, Innovation, Markets IO’s (fire, pest, anthropogenic change), and for Public Safety (fire)

Supports domestic and international reporting Future opportunities and challenges

CFS will more heavily rely on this tool in the future Diversity and volume of data is rapidly increasing

Open data allows opportunities not previously possible Data fusion from multiple RS and Geographic Information

System (GIS) datasets National time series of Canada’s forests

Big Data challenge: computing, data management and specialized staff expertise

Resource challenges 13

Back Pocket Slides Only

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WRS > 1200 images

480 WRS with > 10% forest cover

800 MHa mappedLandsat 7 ETM+

Circa 2000 imagery

23 land cover classes

Completed 2006

Wulder, M. A., White, J.C., Cranny, M., Hall, R.J., Luther, J.E., Beaudoin, A., Goodenough, D.G., Dechka, J.A. 2008. Monitoring Canada’s Forests Part 1: Completion of the EOSD Land Cover Project. Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing, 34(6): 549–562.

Land Cover: Earth Observation for the

Sustainable Development of Forests (EOSD)

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CFS RS Investments

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Wulder, M.A., White, J.C., Han, T., Coops, N.C., Cardille, J.A., Holland, T., Grills, D. 2008. Monitoring Canada’s forests. Part 2: National forest fragmentation and pattern. Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing, 34: 563–584.

What are the forest fragmentation patterns of Canada’s forests?

95 metrics

4 spatial extents:

1:250,000 NTS

1:50,000 NTS

1 km x 1 km

1 ha x 1 ha

http://tree.pfc.forestry.ca/

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Method and product to annually map severe forest disturbances

Goals1- Improve the original CCRS approach to detect severe disturbances (type, intensity) 2- Implement it operationally (starting from 2000 to 2011 …)

Photo credit: NRCan-CFS Photo credit: NRCan-CFS Photo credit: The Canadian encyclopedia

CCRS

CFS & CCRS Forest change product

• NFI• Carbon modelling (NFCMARS)• Many others

• North American Land Change Monitoring System (NALCMS)

CFS

CFS: Luc Guindon, Pierre Bernier, André Beaudoin and Ron Hall

CCRS: Darren Pouliot and Rasim Latifovic

Detection Inventory polygons

FireHarvestingFloods

Annual change detection (from 2000 to 2011)

CCRS collaboration