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Table 2 Present acquisition and analysis costs* of monitoring services of various technologies in US$.

From: An assessment of monitoring requirements and costs of 'Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation'

Satellite and sensor Resolution and coverage or project area Costs for data acquisition Cost for analysis Total monitoring costs Source
Optical, medium resolution sensors
Landsat-5, TM 30 m, 180 × 180 km 0.02 US$/km2 – free Classification 0.12–0.31 US$/km2
Change detection 0.4–0.6 US$/km2 		0.50–1.21 US$/km2 SARMAP pers. comm.
Landsat-7, ETM+ 30 m, 60 × 180 km 0.06 US$/km2    
SPOT 4 20 m 0.31 US$/km2    
Terra ASTER 15 m, 60 × 60 km 0.02 US$/km2    
CBERS-2, HRCCD 20 m free in Brazil    
DMC 32 m, 160 × 660 km 0.04 US$/km2    
IRS-P6-LISS III 23.5 m 0.07 US$/km2 Human resources and equipment 0.5 US$/km2 0.57 US$/km2 [19]
Optical, high resolution sensors
Quickbird 3 m 25 US$/km2 Classification 2.2–2.5 US$/km2
Change detection 4.7–7.9 US$/km2 		7.50 – 35.40 US$/km2 SARMAP pers. comm.
Ikonos 4 m 25 US$/km2    
RapidEye 5 m 2.8 US$/km2    RapidEye pers. comm.
SPOT-5, HRVIR 5–20 m, 60 × 60 km 0.6 US$/km2    SARMAP pers. comm.
Optical, very high resolution sensors
Quickbird 0.6 m 16–22 US$/km2 Classification 100–125 US$/km2 116–272 US$/km2 SARMAP pers. comm.
WorldView-1 0.5 m 16–22 US$/km2 Change detection 160–250 US$/km2 116–272 US$/km2 SARMAP pers. comm.
Radar, SAR
ALOS PALSAR 10–15 m 0.04 US$/km2 Classification 2.2–2.5 US$/km2 6.94 – 10.44 US$/km2 SARMAP pers. comm.
Satellite or shuttle SAR   0.14 US$/km2 Change detection 4.7–7.9 US$/km2 7.04 – 10.54 US$/km2 [60]
Airborne SAR   345 US$/km2   > 345 US$/km2 [60]
LiDAR, airborne
UK, forest monitoring, national average 28,000 km2    415 US$/km2 [60]
US, forest inventory at project level 40 km2    455 US$/km2 [61]
  400 km2    100 US$/km2 [61]
US, project area 180 km2    388 US$/km2 [62]
Indonesia, forest inventory at project level 136 km2 400–550 US$/km2 160 hours processing time > 400–550 US$/km2 RSS GmbH pers. comm.
Ground-based inventories and national/project examples
US, project example 180 km2, 1000 sample plots    167 US$/km2 [62]
UK, ground survey 28,000 km2    172 US$/km2 [60]
Bolivia, Noel Kempff Project, inventory 6,340 km2; 625 sample plots 17 – 0.16 US$/km2**   55 US$/km2 [63]
Costa Rica, Private Forestry Project, monitoring 570 km2    100 US$/km2 [63]
Indian National Forest Inventory and additional biomass assessment 677,088 km2; ca. 7,000 NFI plots + 1,400 additional plots    < 10 US$/km2 [19]
National Forest Monitoring and Assessment Total forest monitoring costs of five examples (Zambia, Honduras, Nicaragua, Bangladesh, Cameroon)    1.2 – 8.2 US$/km2 [64]
Indonesia, Ulu Masen Project 7,500 km2     
   RS monitoring and management     81 US$/km2 [63]
   Airborne monitoring (ultra light aircraft)     200 US$/km2  
  1. * Costs for analysis and total costs are indicative costs. They include service design, data processing and mapping, interpretation and analysis. The actual costs would depend on the selected sensor, the fit of sensor data to area to be mapped (which determines how many scenes are needed), the amount of GIS (Geographical Information System) processing, integration and support services required to develop final images and maps and integrate these into asset operational and management systems.
  2. ** Variable costs dropped rapidly from a precision level of ± 5 percent to a level of ± 30 percent.
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Carbon Balance and Management

ISSN: 1750-0680

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