Rajiv Kumar Chaturvedi
BITS-Pilani, Goa
Rajiv Kumar Chaturvedi is an Assistant Professor at BITS-Pilani, Goa campus. He received his PhD in ecology from the Centre for Ecological Sciences, IISc, Bangalore, and a Master's in geography from Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University. He has been a National Environmental Sciences Fellow at IISc and has contributed to more than 40 peer-reviewed articles and to two books in the areas related to forestry, environment, and climate change. He has worked extensively with communities, Government officials, NGOs, and UN organizations. He is presently the co-chair ofIUCN's forest ecosystems group and is listed as a UN expert on GHG inventory in the land-use and forestry sector. He is currently involved with India's national greenhouse gas inventory programme and has been a lead author for the regional assessment reports of the UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) and IPBES (Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services).
Session 2B - Symposium on "Landscape and Seascape of Western India and Beyond"
Binod Sreenivasan, IISc, Bengaluru
Forest monitoring studies in the Western Ghats - Connecting satellite and near surface observations to ground-based observations
Assessing the impact of global change through satellite, near-surface, and ground observations in the Netravali Wildlife Sanctuary (WLS) in Goa has been the aim of our long-term work. This long-term forest monitoring site is being managed by BITS Pilani's Goa campus in collaboration with the Goa Forest Department and ISRO as part of its IGBP network. While the IGBP project links satellite observations with near-surface observations at the Netravali site, we go a step further and connect these to ground observations. At Netravali WLS, a 1 ha vegetation monitoring plot in the field view of the PhenoCAM has been established, following rigorous international protocols. The 1 ha plot comprises about 5375 individuals, holds 260 tonnes of carbon in vegetation and soils and demonstrates a high level of tree biodiversity with 84 tree species. The BITS team is working with the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Vienna, to develop and calibrate a plot-based dynamic vegetation model named 'Plant- FATE'. A range of additional measurements in the plot, including tree census, biomass and soil-related parameters, photosynthesis measurements under temperature and GHG control, hydrological measurements and 3D mapping of the forest understorey using LIDAR applications, are being undertaken. The collaborative model of research centred around this plot will be talked about and how this could help the forest department better manage these forests will be discussed.