Aboveground Biomass and Carbon Stock Assessment of Three Land Cover Types of Naga City Camarines Sur Using Remote Sensing

Date of Award

12-2021

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Environmental Science

First Advisor

Maria Aileen Leah G. Guzman, PhDMay Celine Thelma M. Vicente, PhD

Abstract

The study aimed to assess the aboveground biomass and carbon stocks of grassland, rice, corn cropland, and forestland of Naga City, Camarines Sur, using remote sensing. Maximum likelihood classification was performed using Landsat 8 satellite imagery and distinguished seven land cover types, including the four target vegetation classes with 28.02% allocation on barren land, 20% on built-up area, 17.69% on grassland, 15.88% on forestland, 17.85% on croplands, and < 1% on the waterbody. The algorithm classified the area of interest with an overall accuracy of 84.9% and a kappa coefficient of 0.82. Aboveground biomass and carbon stocks were estimated using five vegetation indices as predictors, namely: Simple Ratio (SR), Difference Vegetation Index (DVI), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Soil- adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI), and Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI). The correlation analysis of AGB/C among the land cover types and five VIs revealed that SR was the best performing model for grasslands (r=0.78; R2=0.61), DVI for rice cropland (r=0.57; R2=0.32), and EVI for both corn cropland (r=0.69; R2=0.47) and forestland (r=0.73; R2=0.53). The city’s total aboveground biomass is approximately 2.7M Mg, with a total carbon stock of 1.2M C Mg. The highest average aboveground biomass is stored in forestland (165 Mg/ha), followed by grassland (61 Mg/ha), corn cropland (48 Mg/ha), and rice cropland (46 Mg/ha). These estimated values will provide scientific inputs to the increasing repository of carbon inventories necessary for policy, management, and conservation of these land cover ecosystems to improve strategies to curtail land degradation and mitigate the threats of climate change.

Keywords: Aboveground biomass, carbon stocks, remote sensing, Naga City

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