Development of a Mangrove Monitoring & Evaluation System in Guyana

Abstract:

The mangrove forests of Guyana are under threat from a growing population and coastal land development. These ecosystems serve as a natural barrier that protect inland ecosystems from flooding and saltwater intrusion, which reduce the yields of rice and other crops and cause higher intensity floods, since much of the coast of Guyana is below sea level. In an effort to protect these important resources, national academic and government organizations have begun to explore remote sensing based platforms to measure and monitor the spatial and temporal trends in mangrove growth, deforestation and degradation. Through the collaboration of the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute, Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC), University of Guyana, SERVIR Amazonia and others, the first steps have been taken to build a semi-automated platform on Google Earth Engine to set a year 2020 baseline on mangrove forest extent and structure, along the coast of Guyana, using primarily Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and optical imagery. The results will make mangrove-related land-use change transparent, will help in the proactive reduction of mangrove deforestation, assist in forest and biodiversity conservation in Guyana, and the resulting analysis will be publicly available for use by governmental agencies, civil societies and academic researchers.