Assessing Forest Carbon Sinks in Spain using Satellite Images

The present paper is focused on the capabilities of remote sensing data and techniques to help in monitoring forest ecosystems as carbon sinks. It attempts to find statistical relationships between satellite-derived NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) data from SPOT-VEGETATION and NOAA-AVHRR and field measurements from the Spanish National Forest Inventory on a province basis. Statistically significant relationships were obtained when correlating the aforementioned datasets. These relationships could then be used to predict forest biomass at a national level, in order to obtain updated forest information between consecutive National Forest Inventories.