Calculation of carbon sequestered through remote sensing in a metropolitan park in the city of Quito, Ecuador

Abstract

This article investigates how much CO2 is stored in the eucalyptus trees of the Guangüiltagua Metropolitan Park (PMG), as a contribution to inventories aimed at developing initiatives to mitigate the carbon footprint of the city of Quito, Ecuador. In the project's first stage, the Normalized Differential Vegetation Index was calculated from 1982 to 2030 using a Lansat 8 satellite image and QGIS software. A second phase was developed by obtaining a satellite image of SENTINELA-2 and using SNAP software to calculate the NDVI. Using a mathematical model, it was established how much CO2 visually represents each pixel. In the third phase, information was collected in situ using allometric equations in a disaggregation of 50 quadrants, each of 100 m2. The DBH and total height of the existing trees were measured in each quadrant. From this data, we established the amount of CO2 fixed per quadrant, which resulted in an average of 1.5 tons. Using linear regressions, the calculation was projected for the total area of trees in the park, resulting in 42,150 tons of CO2 fixed.