In October’s Agile EO episode, 3 m Forest Carbon Monitoring, we introduced the world's first 3 m-resolution and quarterly-updated map of every tree on Earth that brings accuracy, transparency, and trust to nature-based solutions for climate change. Watch the webinar on-demand here.
Below are some questions we received during the event and resources to learn more.
Questions
Question: What is the minimum tree size you can detect?
Answer: The monitoring product provides area-based estimates, rather than tree-based estimates. In other words, it is not explicitly detecting and delineating individual trees. However, visually, signals of individual trees can be apparent in the data in some cases, e.g., sparsely vegetated systems with large trees. These signals are more likely for large trees (crowns larger than the 3 m pixel size), and trees with heights greater than 4 m.
Question: Are there areas of the world where this product is less reliable?
Answer: We are currently developing a validation and intercomparison report to address this question for Forest Carbon Monitoring, and we plan to release the report in the coming months. You can view the Forest Carbon Diligence Validation and Intercomparison Report for context. The Forest Carbon Monitoring Validation and Intercomparison Report similarly will contain analysis of height, cover, and carbon estimates at multiple spatial scales. Validation results will use effectively error-free external sources of truth (e.g., airborne lidar) as a comparison, while intercomparison analyses will use similar model-based data products.
Question: How well do these layers work in urban environments?
Answer: While we don’t have specific data on performance in urban environments, we can qualitatively say that the product is able to capture urban vegetation (parks, street trees) without a significant number of false positives from the built environment (homes, buildings).
Question: Is there any wait time between submitting a subscription request through the API and having data delivered?
Answer: Yes, it depends on the current load on the API, but we expect order delivery turnaround to be between a couple hours to around half a day.
Question: What is the minimum area for purchasing data?
Answer: If you plan to purchase small quantities of data (generally <250,000 ha), we encourage you to visit one of our partner platforms (Cecil, Lens) which have no order minimums. You are always welcome to talk to a Planet account executive to determine whether a direct buy from Planet makes sense for your organization. Reach out to sales@planet.com to learn more.
Question: Has this product been approved by standards bodies (i.e. Verra, ACR, etc.) for use in the voluntary carbon market?
Answer: Most standards bodies like Verra do not regulate third party data providers. Their role is to review and approve methodologies for creating carbon credits. It is up to the project developer to work with a VVB (validation and verification body) to determine whether a specific dataset meets the criteria set forth by a given methodology. Currently, most methodologies by the major standards bodies prohibit the use of carbon quantification that is derived from remote sensing.
Resources
- Check out the Forest Carbon webpage to learn more, find links to partners, and get started.
- Dive deeper with the Forest Carbon product datasheet.
- Watch the on-demand recording.
