Assessment of Vegetation Carbon using Geospatial techniques

Forests play a critical role in ecological functioning, global warming and climate change through its unique potential to capture and hold carbon. The present study was conducted to characterize the land use, diversity and biomass of tropical forest in Western Ghat of Maharashtra State in India through satellite remote sensing and GIS. Field measured biomass is integrated with spectral responses of various bands and indices of the Landsat TM satellite image for estimation of above-ground biomass in the Central Western Ghat. The above-ground biomass from field-based inventory varied from 30.2 to 151.1 ton/ha in moist deciduous forest, 9.2-99.1 ton/ha in dry deciduous forest, 42.1-158.6 ton/ha in semi-evergreen forest, and 160.9-271 ton/ha in evergreen forest. The total above-ground biomass of the study area was estimated to be 95.2 M tons. A regression equation between field above-ground biomass and a Normalized Difference Vegetation Index was used for spectral modeling to estimate and prepare the above-ground biomass map in the region. This study emphasizes the importance of relic forests for their biodiversity, carbon sequestration and total biomass.