Estimation of carbon stock using remote sensing and GIS: A case study of Rajaji National Park
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Date
2017-07
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G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand)
Abstract
The present study was carried out at three different sanctuaries namely Motichur, Rajaji and Chilla sanctuary that comes under the Rajaji National park, Uttarakhand, India during 2016-17.The sampling in the forest region was carried out within the plots (size 10 x 10 m) in a random fashion. The sampling was done for determining the soil parameters like soil organic carbon and to design a plant inventory comprising of plant height, DBH, wood density and plant density in the plot. The forest of the study area were natural forest but had some patches of plantation forest also. In the naturally growing forest Sal was the dominant tree species whereas in the planted region Eucalyptus and teak trees were more common. The plant density was generally high; the diameter and height of the plant varied in accordance with the age and species of the plant. The carbon content of the soil pool was ranging between medium to high level of carbon. Remote sensing and GIS technology tools were used for forest carbon stock determination. The software like ENVI 4.7 was utilized in the preprocessing of the satellite image, whereas, ArcGIS was use to prepare shape file of the study region. The vegetation carbon pool was 50% of biomass estimated for the forest. Total vegetation carbon was 0.7915 mt, 2.0046 mt and 1.2692 mt in Motichur, Rajaji and Chilla sanctuary respectively. Motichur, Rajaji and Chilla forests were having soil organic carbon 0.5029, 1.354 and 0.9969 mt respectively. Total (aboveground, belowground and soil) carbon pool of Rajaji National park was about 6.9191. These results reveal that relatively an evergreen forest (Chilla sanctuary) sequester more carbon into vegetation biomass as well as soil organic carbon.
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