Kikoyo - Carbon Storage Modeling - A Step by Step Guide

Modelling of Carbon Storage and sequestration using the InVEST model:
A step by step guide for the Little River Watershed, Brazos River Basin, Texas.
Prepared by: Duncan Kikoyo

Texas A&M University.
[email protected]
https://hydrologicmodels.tamu.edu/
Note: This guide describes the steps taken using InVEST version 3.7.0 for Windows 10.
A copy of this guide can be downloaded from https://hydrologicmodels.tamu.edu/
1. Introduction
Carbon in the terrestrial biosphere is stored in living and dead organic matter above and below the ground. Annually,
plants remove approximately one-fifth of the carbon present in the atmosphere (Keenan and Williams, 2018) through
photosynthesis, converting it into short-liveable pools such as in leaves and humus, to long-lived pools in soils. Managing
landscapes for carbon storage and sequestration requires information about how much and where carbon is stored, how
much carbon is sequestered or lost over time, and how shifts in land use affect the amount of carbon stored and
sequestered over time (Sharp et al., 2018). This information can guide the decision-making processes during the selection
of sites for conservation, restoration and other decisions that influence ecosystem services.
The Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs- Carbon Sequestration and Storage (InVEST-CCS) (R.
Sharp et al., 2018) module can estimate the total carbon stored in the landscape by aggregating carbon in the above and
below-ground biomass, dead organic matter and soil sinks. Aboveground biomass comprises all living plant material above
the soil (e.g., bark, trunks, branches, leaves). Belowground biomass encompasses the living root systems of aboveground
biomass. Soil organic matter is the organic component of soil and represents the largest terrestrial carbon pool. Dead
organic matter includes litter as well as lying and standing deadwood. Using maps of land use and land cover types and the
amount of carbon stored in carbon pools, this model estimates the net amount of carbon stored in a land parcel over time.
The model maps carbon storage densities to land use/land cover (LULC) maps and generates raster outputs of storage,
sequestration as well as aggregate totals, expressed as Mg of carbon per pixel. If a current and future LULC map are
provided, then the net change in carbon storage over time (sequestration or loss) can be calculated.
2. Getting started. Model Installation

The InVEST model was developed by Stanford University, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the University of Minnesota,
The Nature Conservancy, and the World Wildlife Fund under the Natural Capital Project. The InVEST model can be
downloaded using the link https://naturalcapitalproject.stanford.edu/invest/. You need to download the software
(preferably the latest version) compatible with your operating system (Windows or Mac). Once the download is completed,
click the downloaded setup file to install the software. You may install all the accompanying datasets although the storage
requirements will be greater (4GB). When the installation is complete, the downloaded datasets, user manual and other
folders and files are automatically downloaded to the installation folder. The executing file for each of the ecosystem
services can be found under the start menu.
3. Running the model

Click on “Carbon app” under the start menu to activate the carbon modelling interface. Specify / input data as described
in the proceeding section. If the correct format is selected, a green tick mark will appear.
4. Inputting required data.
i. Select your preferred workspace (can be different from the installation folder). This is where your output files
will be stored. In this exercise, the workspace is under this directory D:\Research\InVEST\Carbon\TX
ii. Specify a string that will be added to the end of the output file paths for easily identifying different projects.
(LittleRv)
iii. The next step requires you to specify the directory for the land use / landcover (LULC) scenario raster being
studied. Ideally, this map should be prepared in advance since it may need to be projected and clipped from a
larger LULC raster. Detailed LULC maps for the conterminous US can be downloaded from the National Land
Cover Database (NLCD) (https://www.mrlc.gov/data) which provides nationwide data on land cover and land
cover change at a 30m resolution. LULC maps for Texas can also be downloaded from https://data.tnris.org/.
You need to clip your area of interest from the downloaded map as shown below.
o First, you need to get the polygon boundaries (watersheds, states, counties, etc.) of the study area which
shall be used to clip for clipping the LULC raster. The polygon boundary itself may need to be clipped
from a larger dataset. Since this guide uses watersheds, the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset (WBD)
available at https://viewer.nationalmap.gov/basic/ is being used. The Little River Watershed in the
Brazos basin is located in the HUC 12 Texas Gulf Region. Only the WBD for his region should be
downloaded. Note that you may be required to download more than one region if your study area is
very large. For instance, when the whole of Texas is needed, both the Texas Gulf, HUC 13 Rio Grande
and HUC 11 Arkansas-White-Red regions needed to be downloaded.
Note: You will need a compression software such as 7zip to unzip most of the downloaded data.
o You will need GIS for visualisation and editing of both WBD and LULC maps. The same software will
also be required to visualise the raster outputs by the InVEST model. Commonly used software include
ArcGIS and QGIS. QGIS is open source. Here, we use ArcGIS since it is already installed on the Lab
Computers. Click on ArcMap from the start menu. Add the downloaded WBD file. Select the watershed
of interest from the attribute table. Create a layer of the selected file. Rename the file with an appropriate
name. In this case, LittleRv Watershed Boundary.
o While still in ArcGIS, Add the raster layer of the downloaded LULC map. Use the clipping tool under
“Data management tools-Raster-Raster Processing” to clip the required LULC from the larger LULC
map.
o You may decide to re-classify the clipped map or use the map as-is. Save the clipped LUC map in your
working folder and close ArcGIS. The LULC map is ready for use in InVEST.
iv. Specify the location of the table that maps the LULC IDs to carbon pools. The values of carbon in the different
carbon pools can be got from literature or experimentally determined. The table, in .csv format, should look like
the one below.
v. Skip steps (v) and (vi) if you are only determining carbon storage for one specific period. If comparing scenarios,
proceed to (v) and (vi) if you are valuing the carbon sequestered.
vi. The model can determine the carbon sequestrated by calculating the gain / loss in carbon stored between two
periods by inputting LULC maps for the same area at different time periods. If this scenario analysis is of interest,
prepare both maps (current and future) as described in (iv) and input them into the model by specifying their
location.
vii. Clicking on the ‘calculate sequestration” also activates “Run valuation Model”. If the market prices and discount
rates of carbon are known, they can be input so that the model calculates the monetary value of sequestrated
carbon between two scenarios.
viii. Run the model and close the program.
5. Interpreting model results.

The results are in the model’s workspace specified in 4(i). the file names include the suffix defined in 4(ii). The workspace
includes the following files;
i. parameter log: a .txt file listing the parameter values and output messages for that run.
ii. report_[Suffix].html: includes descriptions of output files produced and a summary of the data computed.
iii. tot_c_cur_[Suffix].tif/tot_c_fut_[Suffix].tif/tot_c_redd_[Suffix].tif: Raster maps with carbon stored in Mg in
each pixel for the current, future and REDD scenarios.
iv. delta_cur_fut_[Suffix].tif/delta_cur_redd_[Suffix].tif: Raster maps showing the difference in carbon (Mg per
pixel) stored between the future/REDD landscape scenarios and the current landscape. Values can be negative
or positive. Positive values indicate sequestered carbon, negative values indicate carbon that was lost.
v. npv_fut_[Suffix].tif/npv_redd_[Suffix].tif:** Raster maps showing the economic value of carbon sequestered
(currency per pixel ) between the current and the future/REDD landscape dates.
vi. An intermediate folder “[Workspace]\intermediate_outputs” that has the following files:
a. c_above_[Suffix].tif: Raster of aboveground carbon values
b. c_below_[Suffix].tif: Raster of belowground carbon values
c. c_dead_[Suffix].tif: Raster of dead carbon values
d. c_soil_[Suffix].tif: A raster of soil carbon values
All maps can be visualised and explored in a GIS platform such as ArcGIS or QGIS. A final map classified using ArcGIS
is shown in the figure below.
END

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Modelling of Carbon Storage and sequestration using the InVEST model:

Prepared by: Duncan Kikoyo

2. Getting started. Model Installation

3. Running the model

5. Interpreting model results.

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