Multi-Temporal Analysis and Quantification of the Carbon Stocks in the Urban Forests of Chennai Metropolitan Area Using Geoinformatics Techniques to Identify Their Role in Climate Change Mitigation

The rapid urbanisation that has been happening over the years has led to the total disturbance in the ecological balance of the environment. Various developmental activities have led to the continuous depletion of the vegetation cover. Monitoring the loss of vegetation cover is a challenging task now a days due to the changing trends of urban sprawl and heterogeneous nature of the urban vegetation cover. From various reviews, it is known that the most common methods used for carbon storage studies are the field based studies that are more destructive in nature. Hence in the current research effort has been taken to carry out to study the carbon storage potential of the urban green spaces using the non-destructive methods that is, using satellite images. In the current study the carbon storage was taken as a function of the vegetation indices. The carbon storage was found to be a function of the Vegetation Indices. Hence a regression equation was developed to quantify the carbon storage of the urban trees using NDVI as the independent variable and the carbon storage (in Mg/pixel) for five different years (1980, 1991, 2001, 2011, and 2016) as the dependent variable. The data was drawn from 500 plots established through stratified random sampling scheme, based on the land use type, built up, vegetation and barren lands and further residential and commercial areas within city. From the regression equation the carbon storage potential of the urban green space was derived for 5 different years. Hence the gradual change in the above carbon biomass for 5 years was calculated from which the total biomass and subsequently the carbon stored were calculated.