Utilization of optical satellite data for measuring carbon dioxide at Felda Maokil

Abstract

Currently there are many developments especially in construction’s sectors where a lot of air pollutants have been produced and resulted in the degradation of the environment. The issue has grown in importance in light of recent global warming. This study is based on a short term observation of carbon dioxide (CO2) released due to a road construction at Felda Maokil in Segamat. The method that has currently been used to determine Net Primary Productivity (NPP) at global scale using satellite data known as Moderate Resolution Imaging Radiometer (MODIS). The purpose of this study is to measure the amount carbon dioxide (CO2) that may be absorbed by oil palm tree for an area of about 450 hectares in Oil Palm plantation with low resolution MODIS satellite data. Several objectives have been carried out such as to determine the amount of Net Primary Productivity (NPP) in Felda Maokil, to assess the accuracy of MODIS data by validation process with in-situ data and lastly, to assess the correlation of NPP value from 2001, 2005 and 2009. The data were obtained through two sources which are in-situ as primary source and satellite data as secondary source. Data from four year interval had been chosen to insure more variations during the study period. Therefore the study was verified by the NPP values for year 2001, 2005 and 2009. The resulted acquired presented the mean NPP values for the three years processed were 468.169 g Cm2/y (2001), 560.685 g Cm2/y (2005) and 541.781 g Cm2/y (2009). Meanwhile, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) analysis had gave the resulted as 0.696 (2001), 0.863 (2005) and 0.716 (2009). As a conclusion, the mean NPP values for three years of MODIS images processed have shown similarities and road development had gave some impacts on these results.