Tree canopy cover and its potential to reduce CO2 in South of Peninsular Malaysia

Abstract

Urban trees provide a wide range of ecosystem services that can address climate-change mitigation and adaptation. In this study, the tree cover and their potential to store carbon in two cities (Johor Bahru and Pasir Gudang) that are developing rapidly in the south of Peninsular Malaysia have been estimated. Tree coverage was mapped using Landsat 8 Thematic Mapper satellite data for year 2016. Various digital image processing techniques namely Maximum Likelihood and a sub-pixel classification were applied to obtain tree coverage of urban trees/forest, mangrove and oil palm. Results of the study show that natural tree coverage (forest and mangrove) in the cities range between 19 % and 47 % and generally Pasir Gudang has more tree coverage compared to Johor Bahru. Johor Bahru is the centre for various business and cultural activities, thus more built up areas are found in the city. On average, trees in the cities store approximately 796,136 t carbon or 2,919,164 t CO2-eq which is about 18 % of the total CO2-equivalent emissions projected for 2025 under the Business as Usual (BaU) scenario. The mapping of tree canopy cover and estimating their potential to store carbon is important for assessing climate change mitigation.