Measuring and monitoring NY's Carbon Benefit

Mapping and Monitoring New York’s Forest Carbon Benefits: 2023 Update
Achieving New York’s ‘net zero by 2050’ mandate will require substantial and sustainable growth of the statewide forest carbon sink to offset future emissions from hard-to-decarbonize sectors. For regulatory and voluntary programs to effectively advance this goal across New York’s complex and changing landscape, better data and tools are needed that operate at the different scales where planning, decision-making and action occur - stands, parcels, administrative units, watersheds, etc. We built a map-based carbon accounting system for New York that generates fine-grained (30m, annual) ‘wall-to-wall’ estimates of past, present, and future (scenario-driven) carbon benefits, using publicly available data and open-source tools. In this seminar we outline the system’s development and demonstrate its outputs and applications to support both public and private-sector stewardship efforts.
Presented April 19, 2023 by Dr. Colin Beier, State University of NY - College of Environmental Science and Forestry.