Biomass Burning Emission Inventory from Remote Sensing, GIS and Ground Based Measurements ‐ A Case Study from Secondary Mixed Deciduous Forests, India

Abstract

Biomass burning is one of the important sources of Green House Gas (GHG) emissions to the atmosphere. In India, major sources of biomass burning is from deforestation, shifting cultivation, accidental fires, controlled burning, fire wood burning, burning from agricultural residues, burning due to fire lines, etc. Present study attempts to quantify the GHG emissions from slash and burn agriculture practices over Secondary mixed deciduous forests from Eastern Ghats of India. IRS‐P4 OCM satellite data pertaining to study area has been used to study location, areal extent and intensity of fires. Three ground based experiments have been conducted to quantify CO, CO₂, O₃ and other trace gases using online analyzers and grab sampling. Fuel characteristics have been analyzed prior to burning and combustion factors for the sites have been calculated using the pre and post‐fire biomass values. Analysis of the results with respect to fuel loads suggested that nearly 80% of the stems occurred in the girth class between 10‐40 girth, indicating very poor and secondary nature of the forest. The fire intensity is found to be in the range of 31086 Kjs⁻¹m⁻¹ to 60847 Kjs⁻¹m⁻¹. The individual combustion completeness suggested that among the different components of biomass, branch material with less than 10 cm and upto 5 cm dbh contributed more than 60% of combustion. Mixed leaf litter contributed to more than about 50% of individual combustion completeness at all sites, with third site having the highest (84%). The contribution of dry biomass material that are having more than 70 cm diameter is found very low. With respect to trace gas emissions, emission ratios have been determined with reference to CO₂. Using the GIS, by integrating satellite derived areal estimates from IRS‐P4 OCM data and ground based studies, trace gas emissions released from biomass burning suggested emissions of 3.0 × 10⁵ gms of CO₂, 9.0 × 10³ gms of CO, 3.0 × 10² gms of N₂O, 1.5 × 10³ gms of NOx and 6.4 × 10³ gms of CH₄ for the study area.