Integrating remote sensing and local vegetation information for a high-resolution biogenic emissions inventory— application to an urbanized, semiarid region

Abstract

This paper presents a methodology for the development of a high-resolution (30-m), standardized biogenic volatile organic compound (BVOC) emissions inventory and a subsequent application of the methodology to Tucson, AZ. The region's heterogeneous vegetation cover cannot be modeled accurately with low-resolution (e.g., 1-km) land cover and vegetation information. Instead, local vegetation data are used in conjunction with multispectral satellite data to generate a detailed vegetation-based land-cover database of the region. A high-resolution emissions inventory is assembled by associating the vegetation data with appropriate emissions factors. The inventory reveals a substantial variation in BVOC emissions across the region, resulting from the region's diversity of both native and exotic vegetation. The importance of BVOC emissions from forest lands, desert lands, and the urban forest changes according to regional, metropolitan, and urban scales. Within the entire Tucson region, the average isoprene, monoterpene. © 2000 Air and Waste Management Association.