Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 4
The Role of Managed Forest
Ecosystem: An Inventory Approach
Anna Barbati and Piermaria Corona
Abstract
The use of statistical sampling coupled with periodic re-measurements in
permanent sample units provides the basis for accurate measuring changes in for-
est extent and conditions, and constructing reliable models to estimate trends. This
chapter explores this topic in order to understand how to integrate land use and for-
est inventory approaches so to estimate CO
2
emissions and removals in managed
forest ecosystems. The approach adopted by the Italian National Registry of carbon
sinks, targeted to report the activities elected by Italy under the articles 3.3 and 3.4
of the Kyoto Protocol, is based upon the integration of a robust land use inventory,
driven by ortho corrected airborne images, and field data from the permanent plots
of the national forest inventory. On the whole, the amount of forest land remaining
forest in the period 1990-2008 is estimated to exceed 9,000,000 ha; since 1990,
over 350,000 ha of croplands and grasslands have been converted to forest, while
nearly 127,000 ha have been deforested. The annual change in aboveground living
tree biomass in forest land is estimated as high as
+
14.7 Mt, with an uncertainty
(95 % conidence interval) of 2.8 Mt, which corresponds to an annual carbon
gain estimated between 1.35 t C ha
−
1
y
−
1
and 1.45 t C ha
−
1
y
−
1
.
4.1 Introduction
Sample surveys are recognized as key tools to estimate changes in land
use or in carbon stocks by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) Good Practice Guidance for Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry
