Tracking Rates of Forest Disturbance and Associated Carbon Loss in Areas of Illegal Amber Mining in Ukraine Using Landsat Time Series

Abstract

Mapping forest disturbance is crucial for many applications related to decision-making for sustainable forest management. This study identified the effect of illegal amber mining on forest change and accumulated carbon stock across a study area of 8125.5 ha in northern Ukraine. Our method relies on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) implementation of the Landsat-based Detection of Trends in Disturbance and Recovery (LandTrendr) temporal segmentation algorithm of Landsat time-series (LTS) to derive yearly maps of forest disturbance and recovery in areas affected by amber extraction operations. We used virtual reality (VR) 360 interactive panoramic images taken from the sites to attribute four levels of forest disturbance associated with the delta normalized burn ratio (dNBR) and then calculated the carbon loss. We revealed that illegal amber extraction in Ukraine has been occurring since the middle of the 1990s, yielding 3260 ha of total disturbed area up to 2019. This study indicated that the area of forest disturbance increased dramatically during 2013–2014, and illegal amber operations persist. As a result, regrowth processes were mapped on only 375 ha of total disturbed area. The results were integrated into the Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®) quality management system in the region to categorize Forest Management Units (FMUs) conforming to different disturbance rates and taking actions related to their certification status. Moreover, carbon loss evaluation allows the responsible forest management systems to be streamlined and to endorse ecosystem service assessment.

Flora and fauna diversity in Selangkau forest: A basis for developing management plan of cement industrial complex in East Kalimantan, Indonesia

“…Economic activities through the extraction of natural resources generally have negative impacts on the environment including on biodiversity. The mining sector is one example of extractive economies that causes ecological damages, particularly if mining operation is conducted in forested landscapes (Myroniuk et al 2020). Mining activities, moreover when conducted using the open-pit mining method, will clear vegetation cover and remove topsoil, leaving the landscape to be open and changing the microclimate of the mined site to be hotter and drier.…”

Assessment of the Risk of Disturbance Impact on Primeval and Managed Forests Based on Earth Observation Data Using the Example of Slovak Eastern Carpathians

“…Also, forest disturbance has a wide temporal range, from abrupt events to a chronic and broad spatial extent, from large to small [12]. Usually, forest disturbance is associated with a loss of aboveground biomass and structure disruption [13].…”

Quantitative Assessment of Forest Disturbance with C-Band SAR Data for Decision Making Support in Forest Management

“…To meet the challenge there is a substantial need for current management systems to be adapted to the changing regimes [19,32] and for specific decision-making tools to be improved [22,27]. The detection, mapping, and assessment of forest disturbances become important components in many applications related to decision-making for sustainable forest management [16,21], which is aiming to provide ecosystem services to society and maintain the biological diversity of forests [32].…”

“…Forest disturbance can be natural (wildfires, severe windstorms, flooding, insect outbreaks, and disease affections, landslides, and avalanches) or anthropogenic (land conversion, logging, and mining), has a wide temporal (from abrupt to chronic) and spatial range (large and small) [12]. However, forest disturbance is typically associated with a loss of above-ground biomass and related carbon storage or structure disruption [21].…”