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Seminar | Environmental Science

Geospatial Technologies for Measurement, Reporting, and Verification of Ecosystem Services and Sustainable Bioenergy Systems

EVS Seminar

Abstract: Robust ecosystem service markets require scientifically advanced biogeochemical modeling with geospatial tools to capture the spatial variability of nutrient cycling and greenhouse gas emissions. Experience from carbon markets has highlighted the technical challenge of implementing these advanced tools at low cost to reduce the transaction costs for serving the markets.

Applied GeoSolutions (AGS) has addressed the technical challenges in two ways:

  1. AGS has completely revised the DeNitrification-DeComposition (DNDC) code to facilitate large-throughput processing to support ecosystem service markets at scale and direct integration in landscape simulations driven by remote sensing.
  2. AGS has developed OpTIS, an operational remote sensing platform for mapping conservation practices (crop residue management, tillage systems, and cover cropping) and agricultural management (crop type, plant and harvest dates), for low-cost monitoring and verification, providing a system for landscape-based ecosystem service markets and sustainable bioenergy development.

AGS has recently begun the development of the Agricultural SOil Moisture and Irrigation Status (A·SOM·IS) platform, which uses operational and moderate resolution synthetic aperture radar and optical imagery for mapping and assessment of soil moisture, irrigation status, and crop water stress metrics at field scale.

This seminar will present an overview of these tools and summarize current efforts to map soil health at scale and to support ecosystem service markets.