Implementing Australian forest management practices into a full carbon accounting model

Forest management practices affect carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions and must be considered in carbon accounting models. Forest management practices in Australia have varied over time, depending on forest type, regional influences, available markets and site quality. Remote sensing can identify some management actions, such as time of establishment and harvest (clear-cut and heavy thinning) but is less able to detect site preparation methods and continuing management such as fertilisation, pruning and weed control. Greenhouse gas emissions management requires a capacity to predict the effects of differing management practices on quantities of emissions and removals. To support emissions modelling, a comprehensive database of the forest management practices used in Australia since 1970 has been developed. The database contains information on management practices that is linked to tree species data and to detailed suites of practices that form management regimes. Management regimes are spatially and temporally referenced and vary with region, species, site productivity and previous land-use. Each regime is assigned a relative frequency of occurring at a given point over time, allowing a time series of management regimes to be developed. The database has been incorporated into FullCAM (Full Carbon Accounting Model), a carbon and nitrogen mass balance, spatially explicit, greenhouse gas estimation model for land-based systems. The database also underpins the National Carbon Accounting Toolbox (NCAT) which allows users to develop project level carbon stock estimates based on FullCAM's growth models and information stored in the database. Incorporating the database within FullCAM also allows for the production of other outputs of interest to resource managers such as timber volume based on the management data. This paper describes the forest management database including its structure, links with remotely sensed forest data, national and project level application, and planned improvements. The database provides a valuable synthesis and record of forest management in Australia.