AGS, together with a team of scientists led by Winrock International have developed a “Baseline Map of Carbon Emissions from Deforestation in Tropical Regions”. Reducing carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) has become a key policy issue in developing countries as a climate change mitigation strategy. Large uncertainties exist around annual estimates of emissions from deforestation at national and regional scales due to limitations of data and methods. Here we use satellite observations of deforestation and a map spatial distribution of forest carbon to develop geographically detailed spatially explicit estimates of gross carbon emissions across three continents for the period 2000 to 2005. We show that approximately 43 million hectares of forest were lost , resulting in gross annual emissions of 0.81 Pg C yr-1 with a 90% confidence interval of statistically generated uncertainty range of 0.57 to 1.22 Pg C yr-1. These results provide systematic and comparable estimates of emissions and can serve as a baseline for assessing the global performance of future national and regional REDD interventions.

Three data sets from this paper are available:
Forest loss: 2000-2005 from South Dakota State University
Continental tropical carbon maps: 2000 from Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Carbon emission from forest loss: 2000-2005 for Africa, America, and Asia. Carbon Flux is in tons of C. Map resolution is ~18.5 km. Files are internally compressed (LZW).

The Food and Agriculture Organization estimate more than one billion people are currently undernourished at the same time urbanization is converting cropland to urban land uses. Resilient and sustainable agricultural development is critically needed to ensure more self-sufficiency in crop production and to enhance livelihoods in developing countries. Monitoring of cropland extent, cropping intensity (single, double, and triple crops), irrigation, and crop production is required to support food security programs. In collaboration with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Kyoto & Carbon Initiative (K&CI) we are using ALOS PALSAR to map paddy rice across Monsoon Asia. Rice represents one of the world’s most important crops providing energy to more than a billion people and occupying 11% of arable land.

Research at the intersection of limnology and public health is showing that toxins produced from cyanobacteria act as a trigger for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. ALS affects upper and lower motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord with symptoms including wasting of muscles, weakness, difficulty speaking. A lack of water quality information on the presence, extent, magnitude, and intensity of harmful algal and blooms has limited our ability to understand linkages among cyanobacteria, toxicity, and human health. We are developing satellite remote sensing technologies to generate accurate maps and metrics of cyanobacteria and water quality. Operational imagers are combined with well-validated, adaptive algorithms to provide maps and metrics of water quality. We work directly with resource managers and public health officials to supply customized information.