Scientists at the Woods Hole Research Center are producing a high-resolution “National Biomass and Carbon Dataset for the year 2000” (NBCD2000), the first ever spatially explicit inventory of its kind. The dataset is being produced as part of a project funded under NASA’s Terrestrial Ecology Program with additional support from the Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools Project (LANDFIRE). The primary objective of the project is to generate a high-resolution (30 m), year-2000 baseline estimate of basal area-weighted canopy height, aboveground live dry biomass, and standing carbon stock for the conterminous United States.  

Development of the dataset is based on an empirical modeling approach that combines USDA Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data with high-resolution InSAR data acquired from the 2000 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) and optical remote sensing data acquired from the Landsat ETM+ sensor. Three-season Landsat ETM+ data were systematically compiled by the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium (MRLC) between 1999 and 2002 for the entire U.S. and were the foundation for development of both the USGS National Land Cover Dataset 2001 (NLCD 2001) and the LANDFIRE project. Products from both the NLCD 2001 (landcover and canopy density) and LANDFIRE (existing vegetation type) projects as well as topographic information from the USGS National Elevation Dataset (NED) are used within the NBCD 2000 project as spatial predictor layers for canopy height and biomass estimation. Forest survey data provided by the USDA Forest Service FIA program were made available to the project under a national Memorandum of Understanding. The response variables (canopy height and biomass) used in model development and validation were derived from the FIA database. Production of the NLCD 2001 and LANDFIRE projects was based on a mapping zone approach in which the conterminous U.S. is split into 66 ecoregionally distinct mapping zones. This approach was also adopted by the NBCD 2000 project. Preliminary (beta version) data products are provided here on a zone-by-zone basis. Final, validated products for all zones are expected by March 2010, resulting in an unprecedented baseline against which to compare data products from the next generation of advanced Earth observing remote sensing platforms.

Copyright Information:
Map © 2011 by The Woods Hole Research Center

Investigators:
Dr. Josef Kellndorfer, Dr. Wayne Walker; WHRC

Project Team:
Tina Cormier, Jesse Bishop, Greg Fiske, Katie Kirsch; WHRC
Elizabeth LaPoint; USDA Forest Service, FIA Program

Collaborators:
Colin Homer; USGS National Land Cover Database/MRLC Team
Dean Gesch; USGS National Elevation Dataset
Michael Hoppus, James Westfall; USDA Forest Service