Abstract
Tropical rainforest plays a key role in our climate and needs to be protected. Norway contributes financially to several REDD efforts, and effective monitoring of deforestation is an important task. However, persistent cloud cover in the tropics often prevent reliable monitoring by optical sensors. The main objective of this project is to improve current monitoring by developing new methods using cloud-penetrating SAR satellite imagery to detect deforestation and forest degradation. Norut is involved in several tropical forest monitoring projects (EU FP7 Recover project and a project inside the GEO Forest Carbon Tracking Task) and other international REDD related proposals. We wish to strengthen our capacity by giving a young researcher the opportunity for a PhD project that will profit of the available datasets and a vast international network of highly experienced research groups, including the Brazilian Space Institute (INPE) and the Observatoire Satellital des Forêts d'Afrique Centrale (OSFAC). Several different satellite SAR systems (especially C-and L-band) are in orbit. We will evaluate these and future sensors by their operational availability and their performance for rainforest monitoring. We will collect historical optical and SAR satellite data, analyzed satellite products, wall-to-wall mosaics and ground observation to study more rigorously the SAR signatures of different states of forest in order to establish statistical relationships and look-up tables. These will then serve to develop new detection methods using change detection, feature detection and classification techniques that will be included in Norut's SAR monitoring system. The idea is to complement INPE's current monitoring systems for the Amazon and to contribute in the establishment of monitoring systems in the Congo Basin through OSFAC. Capacity building and technical transfer is also included in the projects and several workshops are planned in the involved developing countries.
Norway