A novel approach to assess and monitor forests for REDD

Abstract

Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, plus conservation of forest carbon stocks, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks, is a set of steps designed to use market and financial incentives in order to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases. The paper addresses the role of satellite remote sensing technologies as a tool for monitoring, assessment, reporting and verification of carbon credits. In particular, image fusion techniques were used to assess and monitor forests based on moderate resolution images of MODIS and TM data. The result showed that satellite image fusion could provide more spatial details and better spectral information compared with the original image and thus prove to be an excellent tool for monitoring carbon storage change for REDD.