Impact case study database

The team’s research has led to impact in 3 main areas, policy, industry and technology:

Policy:

The team’s research has underpinned the development and implementation of national policies to reduce carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation [5.1], [5.2], [5.3], [5.4]. UoE biomass mapping contributed to a USD6,555,000 World Bank project [5.4] to develop capabilities and satellite monitoring tools for forest degradation assessment, applicable on a global scale for sustainable forest management and UN REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) schemes, particularly across sub-Saharan Africa and Central/South America. The Mozambique government has used this research to inform and implement national policy, where ‘ these new data sources have been critical to allowing us to monitor carbon stocks and emissions from land use, and this information in turn contributes to our efforts to set ambitious targets as part of the Paris Agreement, and then monitor our progress towards these goals’ [5.1].

The flexibility and accuracy of the methods have supported NGOs working across sub-Saharan Africa, eg Mozambique, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Rwanda [5.1] [5.4]. The team has worked extensively with the Plan Vivo foundation, an Edinburgh-based charity with international scope, which has created a set of requirements for smallholders and communities wishing to manage their land and natural resources more sustainably. Plan Vivo has worked with and supported over 16,000 participating smallholders with over 180,000 ha of land under management in a range of countries, resulting in over 3,500,000 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions reductions [5.2]. The methods developed at Edinburgh ‘ have been instrumental in many community carbon projects generating carbon credits - these cutting-edge methods have been critical for these projects, which would not otherwise have been viable...and.. our collaboration with the University of Edinburgh remains one of our strongest partnerships, which continues to deliver impact through developing an applying innovative approach to carbon mapping, which ultimately benefits thousands of smallholders’ [5.3].

The team have combined biomass data and models to develop new tools to accurately monitor savannas and dry forests, and quantify carbon stock changes and emissions, and build international partnerships to support national agencies reporting and forecasting greenhouse gas budgets required by the UN Paris Climate Agreement [5.4, 5.6]. Brazil has the largest tropical forest biomass and coverage of any country in the world. With a UoE-Brazilian partnership built over 20 years, the team’s ‘ world-leading expertise and insights around regional carbon cycles, carbon flows and integrating these fluxes at a regional level’ has been critical to developing the modelling capacity of the Brazilian agency INPE, helping them to meet their institutional goals for carbon and climate. Resulting analyses from INPE are informing and improving the Brazilian national carbon cycle model, which is ‘ critical to provide a greenhouse gas balance estimate that underpins national reporting’ [5.6] to guide mitigation policies and supports the Brazilian Government Working Group on REDD+, as well as contributing to the scientific basis for the deforestation carbon emissions reference levels [5.4].

Industry :

A UoE collaboration with Ecometrica resulted in the UK Space Agency funding a GBP14,000,000 project to protect and restore 300,000,000 ha of tropical forests [5.3]. This project during 2017-20 led to the development of tools to measure and forecast biomass change and provision of these outputs to customers across the globe; ‘ the products based on University of Edinburgh Research have proven to have great societal value – informing policy and decision making ‘ [5.3]. The team’s research has also been critical to the development of Ecometrica’s Hectares Indicator. Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) funding provided by the International Climate Fund (ICF) is a key part of the UK’s commitment under the Copenhagen Accord to support developing countries to mitigate and adapt to climate change through low carbon growth, reduced deforestation and increased resilience [5.5]. ODA funding for forest related programmes is approximately GBP200,000,000 per year, and to ensure this is used effectively and efficiently, ICF resources report against relevant Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s). The Hectares Indicator is a KPI used by UK government for most forest-related programmes [5.3].

1. Technology: The team developed and delivered the supporting case for the Earth Explorer BIOMASS satellite mission in 2013, after advising the European Space Agency (ESA) on mission development since 2009. The BIOMASS mission will determine the amount of biomass and carbon stored aboveground in tropical forests over five years (2023-8), at 4 ha (0.04 km²) resolution, with repeated mapping every 9 months [5.5]. BIOMASS is the first satellite mission in space for P-band radar, which is uniquely capable of monitoring the densest tropical forests. UoE research provided a ‘critical starting point to the mission design and… the basis of all downstream mission requirements’ [5.5]. UoE research was instrumental in securing the contract from the European Space Agency (ESA) for Airbus to build the satellite in the UK: UoE ‘ support in writing the selection document ..and presentation at the selection committee meeting ..led to BIOMASS being selected as an ESA earth explorer over intense competition’ [5.5]. The mission, selected in 2013, is the first ever ESA forest-specific monitoring mission, with a budget of EUR420,000,000, including a GBP192,000,000 investment in Airbus UK (currently being built, due to launch in 2023) [5.5].