Web-Based Information for Forest Management
The GOES team believes there is an important role for technology in empowering communities to use measurements and information, and thereby become full partners in national and global climate change mitigation. We have developed a database-backed web-enabled application platform for MRV. It has three components: 1) a Data and Knowledge Management System, which provides capabilities for creating Activity Data on tree cover loss and degradation using landscape-scale remote sensing, 2) a Learning Management System, which supports capacity building and training through in-person or distance learning modes, and 3) a Community Engagement Toolkit that provides the means to take actionable information into communities and across civil society. We use technologies to gather data and take the data products to scale, train experts and community members so measurements can be extended to useful interventions, and then empower millions of rural residents and land owners to mobilize change.
Data and Knowledge Management
All REDD+ programs and projects need to develop or tie into a National Forest Monitoring System that consists of three "pillars": 1) A Satellite Land Monitoring System (SLMS), 2) A National Forest Inventory System, and 3) A GHG Emissions and Removals Accounting System. Our Data and Knowledge Management component of our MRV Platform provides the online toolkit to create these "pillars". Activity Data on rates and extend of deforestation and forest degradation are provided using remote sensing and our fC Tool. The Platform provides all the data management, sample frame development, and carbon computation tools for forest carbon inventory. A handheld smart app provides an extension of the online cloud-based platform to data collection in the field, and supports community based carbon measurement.