Ispra, 22./23.09.2005 | Folie 1 Reporting LUCF to UN-FCCC: The Situation in Austria Workshop: Improving the Quality of Community GHG Inventories and Projections.

Ispra, 22./23.09.2005 | Folie 1

Reporting LUCF to UN-FCCC: The Situation in Austria

Workshop: Improving the Quality of Community GHG Inventories and Projections for the LUCF Sector

Ispra, September, 22th-23th, 2005

Alexandra Freudenschuß Peter Weiss

Ispra, 22./23.09.2005 | Folie 2

Overview

Present quantification method of the C balance of the Austrian forest biomass

Present approach of biomass expansion in Austria and comparison with different approaches

A pragmatic uncertainty estimate Approach for estimating LUC from and to

forest Ongoing and future activities

Ispra, 22./23.09.2005 | Folie 3

Institutional Responsibilities

Federal Research and Training Centre forForests, Natural Hazards and Landscape(BFW):

National Forest Inventory (NFI)National Forest Soil Inventory

Umweltbundesamt:Austrian GHG Inventory

Co-operation between Umweltbundesamt and BFW:

for estimating CO2-balance of forests

Ispra, 22./23.09.2005 | Folie 4

Data sources

Austrian NFI (BFW): measured data on forest area, increment and harvest, stocks since 1961

NFI: 4 x 4 km grid, 4 x 300 m2 permanently marked sample plots at each grid point

Further national statistics to derive relative indices for the calculation of annual data: Increment indices, annual Austrian records of wood felled, Austrian wood balance

Literature data to derive conversion factors: wood densities, allometric relations and C-contents

Ispra, 22./23.09.2005 | Folie 5

Definition of Forest Land according to the Forest Act and NFI

Area stocked by trees at least 1000 m2 (NFI 500 m2) average width of at least 10 m unstocked forest areas due to forest management practices Non-forest land:

crown cover of less than 30% (except due to forest management practices)

areas stocked by shrubs (except coppice stands and protective forests)

rows of trees (except wind belts) short rotation plantations (rotation period < 30 years) Christmas tree cultures, forest nurseries, plantations for seeds of

forest trees or fruits

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Carbon Pools

Reported: Biomass above ground and below ground

Not estimated, so far: Litter/dead organic matter Soils Dead wood

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Present quantification method of the C balance of the Austrian forest biomass

Mean annual increment by NFI (m3 stemwood o.b.)

converted to

Annual increment (m3 stemwood o.b.)

converted to

Annual increment (t stemwood o.b.)

converted to

Annual increment (t of total tree biomass)

converted to

Annual increment(t C of total tree)

Mean annual drain by NFI (m3 stemwood o.b.)

converted to

Annual drain (m3 stemwood o.b.)

converted to

Annual drain (t stemwood o.b.)

converted to

Annual drain (t of total tree biomass)

converted to

Annual drain(t C of total tree)

Net uptake/release [t C] = annual increment - annual drain [in t C]

Ispra, 22./23.09.2005 | Folie 8

Why do we use increment minus drain and not stock change method

Results of NFI 2000/02 (BFW 2004): Stemwood volume stock:

988 +- 16 Mio. m3 o.b. Mean annual stemwood increment:

27.3 +- 0.6 Mio. m3 o.b. Mean annual stemwood drain:

19.5 +- 0.6 Mio. m3 o.b. Uncertainty of volume stock has the same order of

magnitude as the mean annual increment or drain Stock change method results in higher uncertainty of

the figures for net uptake/release

Ispra, 22./23.09.2005 | Folie 9

Conversion of the mean for a NFI period to data for individual years

Annual increment indices: based on 1,197 Austrian increment cores of Norway spruces across all age classes and site conditions (BFW and Institute for Forest Growth and Yield Research)

Annual harvest indices: Austrian annual records of wood felled (Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management)

Ispra, 22./23.09.2005 | Folie 10

Conversion of periodical means to annual values

15

20

25

30

35

61/70 71/75 76/80 86/90 92/96

Mio m3 o.b.

90

100

110

120

130

Index

Mean annual increment Annual increment indices

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Used data for the conversion factors

“m3 stemwood o.b. t d.m. stemwood“: literature data on the densities of all Austrian tree species (= ratio of the dry mass over the water saturated volume of the stemwood)

“t d.m. stemwood t d.m. whole tree biomass” (incl. below ground biomass): literature data from European ecosystem studies on dry mass relations of the stemwood to the other tree compartments for the main Austrian tree species (spruce, pine, beech, oak) and for individual age classes

“t d.m. whole tree biomass t C whole tree biomass“: literature data on the C contents for individual tree compartments and species

Ispra, 22./23.09.2005 | Folie 12

Conversion and expansion factors for Austria

The factors are calculated for each NFI period, separately for increment and drain and according to the individual age class and species composition:

Ispra, 22./23.09.2005 | Folie 13

Development of biomass functions on basis of Austrian data

Discovering of several sets of single tree data from Austria:

Federal Office and Research Centre for Forests (Neumann Markus)

Institute of Botany (Univ. Innsbruck - Katharina Munk, Dagmar Rubatscher)

Institute for Forest Growth and Yield Research (Univ. of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna - Otto Eckmüllner)

Institute of Silviculture (Univ. of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna - Edi Hochbichler, Panagoitis Bellos, Erwin Lick)

Request for additional national funding for the development of biomass functions on basis of these data (Umweltbundesamt as project co-ordinator)

Results and functions will be published in a special issue of the Austrian Journal of Forest Science (end of 2005)

Ispra, 22./23.09.2005 | Folie 14

Uncertainty analysis

the statistical uncertainty of the forest inventory the uncertainty related to the calculation of annual

data the uncertainty related to the missing consistency

of different statistics the uncertainty of each conversion and expansion

factor (estimated by a pragmatic and conservative approach)

Error propagation

Ispra, 22./23.09.2005 | Folie 15

Approach for LUC from and to forest (1)

Data source: NFI 2000/2002 Evaluation of 2/3 of the forest boundary points

where land use changes took place For the years before 1997 the same ratio of land

use changes was assumed Annual increment on LUC to forest: 3m3/ha Average loss of stemwood o.b. on LUC from forests:

31.2±8.1 m3/ha (conif.), 6.5±1.9m3/ha (decid.)

Ispra, 22./23.09.2005 | Folie 16

Approach for LUC from and to forest (2)

Ispra, 22./23.09.2005 | Folie 17

Ongoing and future activities

Development of biomass functions based on Austrian datafinalised end 2005recalculation of data series

Provide data for LUC from and to cropland and grassland (Tier 1)

Other categories (settlement, wetland, others) still under discussion

Ispra, 22./23.09.2005 | Folie 18