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Tools for forest carbon inventory, management, and reporting

3pm, July 28th, 2015

The US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service has compiled various tools for forest carbon inventory, management and reporting.

Accurate estimates of carbon in forests are crucial for forest carbon management, carbon credit trading, national reporting of greenhouse gas inventories to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), calculating estimates for the Montreal Process criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management, and registering forest-related activities for the national 1605(b) Voluntary Reporting of Greenhouse Gases Program and other greenhouse gas registries for States and regions.

The following tools are currently available:

  • PRESTO: an online tool to estimate carbon in harvested wood products
  • Measurement guidelines for the sequestration of forest carbon
  • Field measurements for forest carbon monitoring: a landscape-scale approach, this is a comprehensive handbook of methods and techniques used in forest carbon measurement and monitoring, focused on the stand and landscape scales.
  • Standard tables of forest ecosystem and harvested wood carbon
  • Carbon OnLine Estimator (COLE), a web-based tool for forest carbon analysis
  • FORCARB2: An updated version of the U.S. Forest Carbon Budget Model, produces estimates of carbon stocks and stock changes for forest ecosystems and forest products at 5-year intervals.
  • U.S. Forest Carbon Calculation Tool (CCT), generates state-level annualized estimates of carbon stocks on forest land based on FORCARB2 estimators.
  • Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS), allows users to produce carbon reports along with traditional FVS output
  • CVal, a powerful spreadsheet tool that will help foresters, managers, and project developers work with private forest landowners to assess the economic profitability of participating in carbon markets.
  • i-Tree, a suite of software tools developed to help users identify, understand and manage urban tree populations.
  • CarbonPlus Calculator: A locally customizable emissions calculator for individuals and businesses

View the full list of tools for forest carbon inventory, management and reporting.

Institutions Involved

  • US Department of Agriculture
  • Forest Service
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