This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I research project aims to develops a system for remote analysis of the carbon and biomass content of hardwood and mixed forests through airboune hyperspectral imaging techniques. Existing remote sensing systems can estimate the biomass of coniferous forests but currently there is no method commercially available for hardwood and mixed forests. The company's airborne radar and LiDAR have demonstrated excellent reproducibility and accuracy over pine plantations. However, further research is needed to refine the combined sensor system for the estimation of biomass and carbon over hardwood and mixed forests. The system could provide for the estimation of terrestrial biomass over all forests which will be faster, more accurate, cheaper, and available for commercial and scientific surveys of biomass and carbon over all the world's forests. The system would give scientists a powerful new tool to measure the efficacy of the various techniques being studied for the uptake and sequestration of carbon in terrestrial biomass.
This research will impact all public and private organizations, agencies, and individuals who own and/or manage mixed forest and timberlands. Global warming is now a recognized threat. The Kyoto Accords and the related "Carbon Credit" market address the reduction of greenhouse gases, specifically methane and CO2. Forestry is not yet significantly involved in the exchange of carbon credits, primarily because there is currently no method to reliably and rapidly measure terrestrial biomass. This system has the potential to be a powerful influence on mitigating global warming. It will measure biomass and carbon to a degree sufficient for carbon credit deals to be transacted using trees. The immediate result will be the planting of millions of trees which will reduce global warming.
