nofc.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca.doc

ABSTRACTS Development of methods for monitoring forest resources in Eurasia by JRC Frédéric Achard*, Tomas Bucha, Gian Franco De Grandi, Jan Kropacek, Danilo Mollicone & Hans-Jürgen Stibig, Joint Research Centre of the European Commission The main objective of the “Eurasian Observatory” of the JRC is to contribute to the development of a forest cover database for assessing forest conditions in Eurasia, to the monitoring of forest cover changes and drivers for key-areas in Russia, to the detection of forest cover changes related to logging, to the assessment of disturbance by fire and to the estimation of their contribution to the global carbon budget. The present activities of the Eurasian Observatory are the following: · Compiling a radar mosaic of Eurasia and an atlas of Russian vegetation The JRC developed a new edition of a vegetation map of Siberia. As prior source it used the Global Boreal Forest Mapping project radar mosaic (compiled using imagery acquired by the Japanese JERS-1 sensor during the year 1997) and the GLC-2000 land cover map. The new map features the delineation of vegetation transition zones and of some vegetation types of interest, such as peat lands. A vegetation map of the Ob river floodplain featuring biomass attributes was also produced using interferometric coherency data acquired by the ESA ERS satellites in TANDEM configuration. Medium resolution imagery from the European system ENVISAT-MERIS (300 m) will contribute to this activity in the following years. · Developing a “deforestation hot spot areas” stratification In April 2004 the JRC with the WRI and Russian NGOs organised a forest cover change hot spot meeting in Moscow. The objective is to identify and to locate on a map, areas of recent deforestation in the boreal Eurasia region and to characterise its main drivers. The hot spot areas will serve as basis for assessing forest cover change dynamics in the boreal regions of Ru