International Day of Forests is held on 21 March each year to celebrate and raise awareness of the importance of forests and trees.

With this year’s theme focusing on innovation, we caught up with the Woodland Carbon Code’s new monitoring advisor, Leon DeBell, to find out about his work.

Can you tell us a bit about your role? 

My role is about researching, investigating and trying to establish a clear set of guidelines or methodologies for using remote sensing technology such as drone derived and satellite imagery. This could include photograph style images or images created from wavelengths beyond the normal human spectrum.  

What types of technology are you exploring? 

We’re investigating technologies for both the physical collection of data and the processing of it. An example would be: 

1. Using a drone to collect aerial photographs and LiDAR (light detection and ranging) data
2. Processing these photos and data into products such as high resolution aerial orthomosaic images or canopy height models
3. Using software or code to analyse these products to count the number of trees at a site or determine their height and size to calculate the volume of carbon being sequestered

At any stage of this process, changes in method can have an impact on the final result, so understanding these combination relationships is really important. 

Will you be running trials? 

Yes, we have a number of trials lined up for the next 12 months. We will look at a range of methods and approaches across a variety of five and 15-year verification sites.

If you have a Woodland Carbon Code project and are interested in helping pilot new ways of measuring carbon, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.!

How could these technologies benefit Woodland Carbon Code projects?

Some of the key benefits might include: 

• Improved health and safety for surveying sites
• Gathering reliable data for whole sites, rather than just from plots within them
• More precise calculations of woodland carbon
• Recycling data to improve future models and calculations
• Improved ability to track projects across shorter timespans (i.e. updates less than every 10 years)
• Reductions in cost and time burdens for our partners and clients, which could help to encourage more projects   

What challenges do you face? 

There are a mix of challenges to adapt to. For a five-year verification, we’re interested to see that a new woodland plantation is growing as expected, that there’s no major health concerns and the correct number of trees are growing for what was calculated from the outset.  

This differs from a 15-year verification, where we also include information on tree species, size and height for the carbon calculations. Mixed broadleaf or natural regeneration present very different challenges compared to the more regular structure of planted conifer sites. 

You then have to add in the range of technologies available. It’s a case of trying to establish the right and most accurate tool for each of those jobs, from the type of data collected to which type of processing to use.

How did you get into monitoring? 

I’ve been involved in monitoring and remote sensing in a variety of forms for about ten years now. It all started with a project I was part of through the University of Exeter, developing a new drone remote sensing platform which used thermal cameras to detect surface water in peatlands. It was a really great time to be involved. It was pretty much the start of the boom period in academia for drone remote sensing, so there were a lot of fun and exciting projects that followed on from that! 

What’s the most exciting part of your job? 

I’m a real tech geek, at home and at work. I just love technology. I also have conservation and ecology at the heart of everything I like to do. Add in researching, problem solving and being able to combine these all together for a project that has a meaningful impact for the future brings me a lot of joy. It’s a really well-defined recipe for me! 

For more information on Leon’s work, visit our remote sensing webpage.