Remote Sensing (RS) Science and Applications in the CFS Presenters: Jeff Dechka, Ron Hall, Mike Wulder 1

CFS RS Investments ( ) Cornerbrook 0 RES, 1 Other Salary $98K O&M $0 Leveraging $115K 1 RES, 1 Other Salary $188K O&M $11 K Leveraging $50K 1 RES, 2 Other Salary $270K O&M $11K Leveraging $50 K 1 RES, 2 Other Salary $279K O&M $11K Leveraging $70K 4 RES, 4 Other Salary $868K O&M $37K Leveraging $625 K 2

CFS’ RS Landscape  Staff  7 RES  10 Professional  Salaries  RES Salary - $778K  Professional Salary - $926K  A-Base O&M - $70K (in NFIA)  OGD Leverage - $910K (Funding) 3

Main Federal Collaborators  Canadian Space Agency (CSA)  Financial support for applications development  Environment Canada (EC)  UNFCCC and NIR (GHG) reporting  Support EC on forestry related to the Group on Earth Observations (GEO)  collaboration with EC MSC on sharing fire information and land cover data  Agriculture and Agri-foods Canada (AAFC)  NFI, NIR, UNFCCC through deforestation/land use/cover  NRCan-ESS  Data preparation and automation  Scientific collaboration (e.g. Fire) 4

Why CFS Relies on RS Solutions  Canada’s vast and diverse forests present challenges for measuring and monitoring.  1000M ha of land  600M ha forest ecosystem  400M ha forested lands  Opportunity for Innovative Solutions  Cost effective, repeatable analyses of forest status and trends  RS is an enabling tool for a variety of CFS work  NFI, Carbon, Climate Change, Forest Change, CBFA, Enhanced Inventory, Markets, SoF, Fire, etc.  Supports and connects industry, academia, federal, provincial and territorial partners 5

National Forest Inventory  RS provides timely and up-to-date information to help meet Canada's national and international reporting commitments (SoF, FRA, UNFCCC, CBD)  CFS RS research focuses on new RS methodologies to enhance the NFI 6 Map in SoF 2015 Generated using RS and NFI Selected RS Solutions - 1

Multisource Vegetation Inventory in NWT  Integrates field, aerial, LiDAR, and satellite data for forest inventory  Central for carbon accounting, NFI update, NWT inventory needs & SFM indicators  CFS research with NoFC, LFC & PFC on national maps Selected RS Solutions - 2 7

FireMARS: National Burned Area Composite  Annual mapping of burned areas since 2004  Input to Carbon Accounting to compute C emissions  Integrating with NFI  Future new forest change indicator on area burned  Input to EC Nat’l disturbance  Result of NRCan CFS-ESS collaboration. Selected RS Applications - 3 8

Cumulative Forest Changes

 Enhanced Forest Inventory (EFI)  Improved industry decision-making  Tree heights  Volume  Biomass  Merchantable timber  Road development  CWFC, AFC (Corner Brook) and PFC 10 Canopy Model Elevation Model Selected RS Applications - 4

 Deforestation Mapping and Reporting  Changes in land use  Various RS data sets  Supports NFI and carbon  UNFCCC, EC NIR  SoF, provincial/territorial summaries.  Supported BC’s zero deforestation policy. 11 Selected RS Applications - 5

Benefits to CFS  Supports a variety of activities in CFS – Climate change, markets, ecosystems, disturbances (fire, insects, anthropogenic) etc.  Forest cover change  Deforestation can be mapped at a regional or national scale.  Fire can be mapped annually (National Burn Area Composite).  Disturbances from 1980’s to present.  Collaboration with the provinces on NFI permits leveraging $2M of RS data (aerial photography, satellite imagery)  Enhanced Forest Inventory  CWFC case study - LiDAR saved $800K for Romeo Malette Forest (Timmins, Ont.)  Other companies moving towards LiDAR. 12

Summary  RS is indispensable and evolutionary  Important to CFS  Needed for EIO, DIO, Innovation, Markets IO’s (fire, pest, anthropogenic change), and for Public Safety (fire)  Supports domestic and international reporting  Future opportunities and challenges  CFS will more heavily rely on this tool in the future  Diversity and volume of data is rapidly increasing  Open data allows opportunities not previously possible  Data fusion from multiple RS and Geographic Information System (GIS) datasets  National time series of Canada’s forests  Big Data challenge: computing, data management and specialized staff expertise  Resource challenges 13

Back Pocket Slides Only 14

WRS > 1200 images 480 WRS with > 10% forest cover 800 MHa mapped Landsat 7 ETM+ Circa 2000 imagery 23 land cover classes Completed 2006 Wulder, M. A., White, J.C., Cranny, M., Hall, R.J., Luther, J.E., Beaudoin, A., Goodenough, D.G., Dechka, J.A Monitoring Canada’s Forests Part 1: Completion of the EOSD Land Cover Project. Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing, 34(6): 549–562. Land Cover: Earth Observation for the Sustainable Development of Forests (EOSD) 15

CFS RS Investments 16

Wulder, M.A., White, J.C., Han, T., Coops, N.C., Cardille, J.A., Holland, T., Grills, D Monitoring Canada’s forests. Part 2: National forest fragmentation and pattern. Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing, 34: 563–584. What are the forest fragmentation patterns of Canada’s forests? 95 metrics 4 spatial extents: 1:250,000 NTS 1:50,000 NTS 1 km x 1 km 1 ha x 1 ha 17

Method and product to annually map severe forest disturbances Goals 1- Improve the original CCRS approach to detect severe disturbances (type, intensity) 2- Implement it operationally (starting from 2000 to 2011 …) Photo credit: NRCan-CFS Photo credit: The Canadian encyclopedia CCRS CFS & CCRS Forest change product NFI Carbon modelling (NFCMARS) Many others North American Land Change Monitoring System (NALCMS) CFS CFS: Luc Guindon, Pierre Bernier, André Beaudoin and Ron Hall CCRS: Darren Pouliot and Rasim Latifovic

Detection Inventory polygons Fire Harvesting Floods Annual change detection (from 2000 to 2011) CCRS collaboration