A Methodological Approach for a Consistent and Accurate Land Representation Using the FAO Open Foris Collect Earth Tool for GHG Inventories

Abstract

The land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) sector plays and will continue to play a crucial role in international efforts to mitigate climate change. Developing a greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory for the LULUCF sector is inherently associated with complexity and methodological difficulties. The ability to appropriately identify and classify land use and land-use changes is a key prerequisite for developing an inventory in line with the principles of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Recently, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) released the Open Foris Collect Earth (CE) software to assist countries in collecting, managing and analyzing land-cover and land-use information. However, limited guidance is available to assist users in the design of the land categories and the collection of the necessary data for land representation in line with the IPCC principles. The different classification protocols that are currently followed, in parallel with the subjectivity in users’ interpretation, risk multiple users classifying the same land area under different land-use categories. This article proposes a methodological framework for using CE to prepare land area data that are complete, consistent, accurate, transparent and comparable, in accordance with the IPCC Guidelines.