The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation has awarded a grant of $451,000 to Clark Labs in support of their current work with Google.org in the development of on-line tools for REDD projects. REDD, Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, is a climate change mitigation strategy that offers developing countries and others incentives to reduce forest carbon emissions. One of the first required activities of REDD is the modeling of a business-as-usual baseline, a scenario of projected deforestation that would occur in the absence of REDD. This grant supports the development of a prototype utilizing current tools included in the Land Change Modeler application within IDRISI Taiga for Google.org’s Earth Engine platform, a technology in development that enables global-scale monitoring and measurement of changes in the Earth’s forests. It is planned that Google will host the required geospatial data layers to implement a REDD project, including maps of those factors identified as critical causes of deforestation, such as proximity to roads, slopes or distance from existing deforestation. Read More
