Liberia Land Cover and Forest Mapping FOR THE READINESS PREPARATION ACTIVITIES OF THE F ORESTRY D EVELOPMENT A UTHORITY Contract No.: FDA/FCPF/JVMG/LLCFM/01/14 Forestry Development Authority Mats Rosengren, Project Manager, Senior Remote Sensing Expert, JV Metria/GeoVille Presented by: Ignitius K. Jaye, Manager – GIS and RS, Forestry Development Authority (FDA)

Project Background Previous work by Metria/GeoVille 2011 in a study funded within the joint ESA/WB eoWorld initiative –Mapping of forest areas in NW Liberia –Detailed forest mapping for 2010, 2007, 2002 –Change detection

Conclusions from the EOWorld mapping 2011 Products are suitable for local level planning and regional statistics Benchmark for forest monitoring Large areas with low impact from forestry activities ~10 % available by current infrastructure Most forest cover changes in “agricultural forest” close to settlements <10 % in areas with a slope over 30 % 17 % of the forest area is 0-30 % crown cover and is predominantly part of the agricultural rotation

Liberia´s Land Cover and Forest Mapping 2015 JV Metria/GeoVille contracted by Forestry Development Authority to conduct the LC mapping of Liberia (Febr 2014) JV Metria/GeoVille – Joint Venture between –Metria AB: Swedish government owned company with significant experience in forest mapping and monitoring using remote sensing –GeoVille Information Systems GmbH: Austrian based company working globally with land cover mapping and monitoring

Objectives of Assignment (a)Develop/select existing digital mapping software programs for forest cover mapping to be applied in Liberia; (b) Conduct mapping and produce validated land cover and forest maps for Liberia; and (c) Conduct training of the staff of the Forestry Development Authority, LISGIS and other relevant stakeholders on digital mapping of forest cover and its changes, and on the assessment and extent of illegal harvesting.

Operational Scenario The Land Cover and Forest map will be the basis for –The WHAT? Baseline inventory of existing forest areas and areas affected by degradation and land use and land cover-change (LULCC) processes, supporting REDD/REDD+ reporting, environmental impact assessment, improvement of forest inventories etc. –The WHERE? Geospatial, i.e. localized, digital map information on hot-spots of change –The HOW MUCH? Highly reliable area statistics for different forest and land cover types over entire Liberia or regions/districts/communities

Technical specifications Minimum mapping unit of 0.5 ha Spatial resolution of 10 m (5 m) Most recent RapidEye imagery & Landsat 8 used ( ) Object- and pixel based classification Post classification editing by manual interpretation Liberia Land Cover (Legend) Forest >80% Forest 30-80% Forest <30% Mangrove & swamps Settlements Urban (>2500 inhabitants) Rural (< 2500 inhabitants) provided ancillary data by LISGIS Surface Water Bodies Grassland (Savannah) & Shrubs Bare soil Ecosystem complex (rocks & sand) Slope classes ; 30 %; (separate layer) Elevation (separate layer) Road and railway network (separate layer) Primary road (paved) Secondary road (unpaved) Tracks (backroads) Railways

Satellite Data Search and Preparation (Feb – May 2014) –Landsat data (Feb – April 2014) –Purchase of RapidEye coverage (May 2014) Funded by European Space Agency Single User Licence – End User FDA Workshop in Monrovia April 2014 –Anchor the proposed land cover and forest mapping approach and class definitions –Collect information for the inception report and technical specifications for the maps and the GIS-tools –Training for field validation Inception Report and Technical Specifications (May 2014, Final Aug 2014) Mapping of Test Area - 10% of the area (Oct – Dec 2014) Field Survey performed by FDA staff (Nov 20 – Dec 3, 2014) Project Milestones RapidEye coverage (85% of Liberia)

Project Milestones (cont´d) Validation Report (March 2015) New ”cloud-free” Landsat 8 data (Dec 29, 2014 – Jan 7, 2015) Contract Extension (May 2015) Full area mapping (Apr – Sep 2015) Delivery of mapping products (Oct 2015) –Digital and hardcopy Remaining work Internal validation results (Dec 2015) Training material and programme (Dec 2015) Training workshop (January 2016) Final Report (February 2016) Independent validation Landsat 8 coverage

Outcomes of the project for Liberia Up to date high resolution forest and land cover information Knowledge about forest resources and agricultural land A platform for natural resource monitoring A baseline for the REDD process and carbon monitoring Capacity building for forest mapping & monitoring with Earth Observation

Detailed Land Cover Map 2015 compared to 2004 map (from test area) Land cover 2013 (produced by JV Metria/GeoVille) Minimum mapping unit: 0.5 ha Land cover 2004 (Bayol)

Mapping Results Land Cover and Forest Mapping The classification was done by combining the 5 m resolution of RapidEye ( ) and the spectral information from Landsat 8 ( ) Landsat-8 mosaicRapidEye coverage (B/W

Mapping Results Land Cover and Forest Mapping With roads and railroads

Some examples

Land cover class Hectares% of mapped area Forest >80% % Forest % % Forest <30% % Mangrove & Swamps % Settlements % Surface Water Bodies % Grassland % Shrub % Bare Soil % Ecosystem complex (rocks & sand) % Clouds (unmapped) (0.15%) Total mapped area (land and inland water) % Area Statistics from the Map Hectares and % of Total Mapped Land Area (incl Surface Water)

Statistics from the map % of Total Land Area Only 0.15% of the total area was cloud covered

Landsat Dec 2014 Example: Buchanan Rubber trees Grass /bare soil (mixed) Bare soil Forest Young plants

Land Cover and Forest Map w. road network Example: Buchanan

Example: Monrovia Landsat Jan 2015

Land Cover and Forest Map road network Example: Monrovia

Example: Monitoring of changes - Grand Kru A robust method of finding changes Land Cover and Forest Map from Landsat 2013 and RapidEye 2012

Example: Monitoring of changes - Grand Kru A robust method of finding changes Landsat Dec 2013

Example: Monitoring of changes - Grand Kru A robust method of finding changes Landsat Jan 2015

Example: Monitoring of changes - Grand Kru A robust method of finding changes Difference image in 3 spectral bands showing reflectance changes in different colors: Unchanged: Grey Mild colors: small changes Bright areas: large changes (vegetation loss) Dark areas : large changes (vegetation growth) Green: More vegetation Dark purple: More vegetation Yellow/purple: less vegetation Clouds/shadows. White/dark grey Removed forest Small fields Removed forest New vegetation on cleared areas ?

Contact information Mats Rosengren Project Manager, Senior Remote Sensing Expert Metria AB PO Box 30016, Stockholm, Sweden Warfvinges väg 35 Phone: Mobile: Christian Hoffmann Managing Director GeoVille Information Systems GmbH Sparkassenplatz 2, 3rd floor, A Innsbruck, Austria Tel: Fax: Esmeray Elcim Remote Sensing Expert Metria AB PO Box 30016, Stockholm, Sweden Warfvinges väg 35 Phone: Jürgen Weichselbaum Technical Director GeoVille Information Systems GmbH Sparkassenplatz 2, 3rd floor, A Innsbruck, Austria Tel: Fax: