Eye in the sky helps monitor warming

New Zealand from above. Photo / Visible Earth

Environmental agencies propose to use the latest eye-in-the-sky technology to fight global warming.

Images recorded by satellites passing over New Zealand will be used to measure and monitor the carbon stocks of forests and soil. They will also measure land change.

Australia already uses the latest high-resolution Spot 5 satellite imaging in its native vegetation compliance and enforcement programme.

Images from the French satellite snapped from 800km above the Earth are key evidence in a case of illegal clearing of 18ha of bush in central New South Wales.

Spot 5 technology introduced this year is capable of detecting objects at plus or minus 2.5m accuracy - a major improvement on the 20m accuracy of Landsat images.

In New Zealand, Spot 5 imagery is not used by authorities specifically for discovering illegal bush clearance.

Environmental watchdog Auckland Regional Council considers the technology an expensive alternative to surveillance by light plane.

The Spot 5 takes in 60-80km wide swathe of the country and offers near daily data collection and the imagery is available to government agencies, regional councils and crown research institutes under an all-of-government licence secured by the Environment Ministry.

Sharp-focus satellite imagery will be used to measure and monitor New Zealand's forest cover and soil and to measure land use change.

The Ministry for the Environment has to undertake land cover change analyses as part of its international reporting requirements under the Kyoto Protocol.

The Government proposes to introduce an emissions trading scheme for greenhouse gases starting next year with forest owners. They can earn carbon credits and be charged for emissions from conversion of land to non-forestry use.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry is developing methods to measure the amount of carbon stored in a forest, carbon emissions and removals.