LASmoons: Stéphane Henriod

Stéphane Henriod (recipient of three LASmoons)
National Statistical Committee of the Kyrgyz Republic
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

This pilot study is part of the International Climate Initiative project called „Ecosystem based Adaptation to Climate change in the high mountainous regions of Central Asia“ that is funded by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMU) of Germany and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan.

Background:
The ecosystems in high mountainous regions of Central Asia are characterized by a unique diversity of flora and fauna. In addition, they are the foundation of the livelihoods of the local population. Specific benefits include clean water, pasture, forest products, protection against floods and landslides, maintenance of soil fertility, and ecotourism. However, the consequences of climate change such as melting glaciers, changing river runoff regimes, and weather anomalies including sharp temperature fluctuations and non-typical precipitation result in negative impacts on these ecosystems. Coupled with unwise land use, these events damage fragile mountain ecosystems and reduce their regeneration ability undermining the local population’s livelihoods. Therefore, people living in rural areas and directly depending on natural resources must adapt to adverse impacts of climate change. This can be done through a set of measures, known in the world practice as ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) approach. It promotes the sustainable use of natural resources to sustain and enhance the livelihood of the population depending on those resources.

Goal:
In two selected pilot regions of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, planned measures will concentrate on climate-informed management of ecosystems in order to maintain their services for the rural population. EbA always starts with identifying the vulnerability of the local population. Besides analyzing the socio-economic situation of the local population, this includes (1) assessing the ecological conditions of the ecosystems in the watershed and the related ecosystem services people benefit from, (2) identifying potential disaster risks, and (3) analyzing glacier dynamics with its response to water runoff. As a baseline to achieve this and to get spatially explicit, remote sensing based techniques and mapping activities need to be utilized.

A first UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) mission has taken place in the Darjomj watershed of the Bartang valley in July 2016. RGB-NIR images as well as a high-resolution Digital Surface Model have been produced that now need to be segmented and analysed in order to produce comprehensive information. The main processing that will take advantage of LAStools is the generation of a DTM from the DSM that will then be used for identifying risk areas (flood zones, landslides and avalanches, etc.). The results of this approach will ultimately be compared with lower-cost satellite images (RapidEye, Planet, Sentinel).

Data:
+ High-resolution RGB and NIR image (10 cm) from a SenseFly Ebee
+ High-resolution DSM (10 cm) from a SenseFly Ebee

LAStools processing:
1) classify DSM points obtained via dense-matching photogrammetry into a SenseFly Ebee imagery into ground and non-ground points via processing pipelines as described here and here [lastile, lassort, lasnoise, lasground]
2) create a DTM [las2dem, lasgrid, blast2dem]
3) produce 3D visualisations to facilitate the communication around adaptation to climate change [lasview]