Landgate innovative tools for carbon accounting

01 December 2008, 1:16pm

December 1 2008 - A ground-breaking suite of online Carbon Accounting tools for forest carbon sink projects is being developed by Landgate, Western Australia’s Land Information Authority.

Landgate’s Acting Chief Executive Mike Bradford said Landgate CarbonWatch was the result of requests from the forestry-based carbon offset industry in Western Australia.

“Landgate was asked to develop a cost effective method of accurately modelling and measuring carbon sequestration levels, at the scale of an individual project,” Mr Bradford said.

“The Landgate CarbonWatch suite will use satellite imagery to make it easier for project owners to plan a forest sink project, demonstrate eligibility under the Kyoto protocols, then monitor and quantify the sequestered carbon for their project.

“Landgate CarbonWatch integrates high resolution satellite imagery and other spatial datasets, such as property boundaries and environmental data, in an online environment.

“This provides a means of verifying carbon offsets and includes a facility to download information in a format that may be included in Greenhouse Gas reporting.”

The Landgate CarbonWatch suite consists of three tools.

The initial version will service Western Australia forest sequestration projects, with plans to roll it out to full Australian coverage later in 2009.

Mr Bradford said Landgate CarbonWatch was being developed to assist individual forestry projects meet the requirements of the proposed Australian Emissions Trading Scheme.

“The Landgate CarbonWatch suite will complement the regional planning function of the National Carbon Accounting Toolbox (NCAT) system provided by Department of Climate Change (DCC).

“It will also comply with all the audit and governance requirements of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Regulator,” Mr Bradford said.

Landgate

Geo: International