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

Böttcher, Hannes; Eisbrenner, Katja; Fritz, Steffen; Kindermann, Georg; Kraxner, Florian; McCallum, Ian; Obersteiner, Michael

doi:10.1186/1750-0680-4-7

Carbon Balance and Management

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

* 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.
** Variable costs dropped rapidly from a precision level of ± 5 percent to a level of ± 30 percent.

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ISSN: 1750-0680

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