think climate. think change.
Department of Climate Change
Edited by Suzanne Furby and Peter Woodgate, October 2002
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The National Carbon Accounting System (NCAS) provides a complete accounting and forecasting capability for land-based sources and sinks of greenhouse gases. The system fulfils reporting obligations under the Kyoto Protocol, as well as providing annual estimates to Australia's National Greenhouse Gas Inventory.
The immediate priority for the NCAS is the estimation for the baseline year under the Kyoto Protocol - 1990. The system accounts for emissions from land clearing in 1990, as well as emissions resulting from the loss of soil carbon and decay of vegetation that was cleared in previous years. The relevant decay cycle covers a period of 20 years (1970 - 1990). The amount of regrowth vegetation is also critical for determining net emissions.
The purpose of this pilot project is to implement and test the method chosen for analysing remotely sensed data for determining the annual rate and location of clearing and regrowth for the period 1970 to 1990. This report describes the results of this implementation for an area surrounding Narrandera in the Murray Darling Basin in NSW.
