Land Use and Carbon Analysis System – LUCAS

25 August 2009

Tags: productivity, economy, report, government

This case study has been taken from the Spatial Information in the New Zealand Economy - Realising Productivity Gains report, August 2009.

LUCAS is being implemented to meet New Zealand's reporting requirements under the Kyoto Protocol. The data and information required to determine New Zealand's carbon stock changes will be stored in the LUCAS database. LUCAS is a cross-government programme led by the Ministry for the Environment (MfE) in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF).

The LUCAS team now consists of 20 staff. The project relies heavily on spatial data and modern spatial information technology, which it began to use "seriously" around five years ago.

For the large and long-term LUCAS project the use of modern spatial information is absolutely critical.  The project could not be completed without access to the technology (including the data). (Peter Stephens, Designer, LUCAS)

The satellite imagery for LUCAS is purchased under an all-of-government purchase agreement so that other government departments and local government can use these data. Apart from enabling New Zealand compliance with Kyoto, these and other data can be used for:

• verifying land that can be planted under the Permanent Forest Sinks Initiative and the Forest Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS)
• national land cover mapping
• forest condition and biodiversity
  • This programme will undertake New Zealand's first national forest inventory since the 1940s. Additional data are collected at the same time as field party members collect forest and soil carbon data. This can in turn be used for:
    • biodiversity assessments of indigenous forest and shrublands
    • sampling frameworks for regional and local vegetation monitoring

LUCAS is an important example of spatial information enabling and being used in new applications rather than creating productivity improvements for existing processes. LUCAS will enable accounting and reporting of afforestation, reforestation and deforestation under Article 3.3 of the Kyoto Protocol during the first commitment period (CP1) from 2008-2012. Whilst the project has required a significant investment cost in terms of data acquisition and staff numbers required to implement the project, at the very minimum it should achieve avoidance of penalties that could be issued in the future in case of non-compliance with Kyoto requirements.

To better understand the size of the task which would have had to be undertaken in the absence of modern spatial information technology, it should be noted that LUCAS will calculate the amount of carbon stored in forests and soils and how these carbon stocks change with land use. This involves reporting for five terrestrial carbon 'pools':

• Above-ground biomass
• Below-ground biomass
• Dead wood
• Litter
• Soil organic matter

It is obvious that if this had to have been achieved by 'traditional' means (paper maps, etc.) it would have been a monumental, if not impossible, task. The respondent for this case study stated that the benefit-cost ratio for LUCAS has been estimated at 25:1; whilst the methodology for arriving at this figure is unknown it may well turn out to be an underestimate. Systems such as LUCAS will be critical in enabling and enforcing the shift to a low (or lower) carbon economy. This has ramifications for the entire economy.