Supporting a forest observation system for Siberia: Earth observation for monitoring, assessing and providing forest resource information

More than 50 percent of the Russian forest inventory was updated more than 25 years ago. The consequence is that most of the existing forest inventory is outdated. Human and environmental forest disturbances continuously affect changes of forest cover and biomass stocks. The magnitude and extent of ongoing environmental pressures (e.g., forest fragmentation and the impact of global climate change) and the loss rates of particular habitat types is unknown. The aim of the paper is to provide an integrated concept for the monitoring and assessment of forest resources, as demonstrated for Central Siberia in the framework of the ZAPAS project and the Siberian Earth System Science Cluster (SIB-ESS-C). Regional and local scale in-situ and multi-agency satellite data were analyzed to generate biomass and forest cover change maps at local scales which were validated with up-to-date forest inventory data. At regional scales a synergy map of land cover and biomass information was developed. Annual PALSAR backscatter data proved to be applicable for local scale forest biomass monitoring and reforestation assessment. The forest resource maps were integrated in a data middleware system to provide Web-based analyses interoperability, data access of multi-scale forest resource maps to local stakeholders, and decision support for regional and local forest management in Central Siberia.