Forecasting in Eco

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eric.hammond
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Mar 17, 2021 3:59 pm

Forecasting in Eco

Post by eric.hammond » Wed Mar 17, 2021 4:37 pm

I have two questions. Which tool is best for running projections (ideally outside US) on a project, starting with young trees, watching them over time for carbon?

Related, I've entered a dataset into Eco. Small DBH. Then when using Forecasting I have doubts about the way to interpret the data over time. Particularly for carbon sequestration and carbon storage, is the value over time already displaying the accumulated value, year 4 added to years 1-3, etc? Or is it the value from only that single year in the projection. For instance in a 30 year forecast, in year 23 is the value displayed the accumulated carbon or do all the years' values need to be added. The amount displayed seems too small.

Eric
Jason.Henning
i-Tree Team
Posts: 340
Joined: Fri Dec 21, 2012 7:45 am

Re: Forecasting in Eco

Post by Jason.Henning » Thu Mar 18, 2021 11:18 am

Hi Eric,
The Forecasting module in i-Tree Eco is really the only option outside the US. In the US, or if you are willing to assume any inaccuracies associated with using a US location as a surrogate, the i-Tree Planting and i-Tree Design tools may be more appropriate. i-Tree Planting was specifically designed to assess the green house gas contributions of new tree plantings.
To your second question, in all i-Tree tools "carbon storage" can be considered cumulative as it represents all of the carbon currently held in the tree. The "carbon sequestration" will always represent an annual rate of uptake. In short, "carbon sequestration" is an estimate of how much carbon that tree could take up in the next year while "carbon storage" represents the total carbon held in the tree in the current year.
Hope that helps clarify.
Thanks,
Jason
A member of the i-Tree Team
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