%0 Articles %T Estimating forest growth and carbon balance based on climate-sensitive forest growth model and remote sensing data %A Härkönen, Sanna %D 2012 %J Dissertationes Forestales %V 2012 %N 138 %R doi:10.14214/df.138 %U http://dissertationesforestales.fi/article/1921 %X A climate-sensitive process-based summary model was used to estimate forest growth and carbon balance with field inventory and airborne laser scanning data, which are easily available for practical forest planning purposes. The generalisation of forest carbon balance estimations for large areas was examined by using a k nearest neighbour imputation with Landsat satellite images. The estimations were evaluated using several data sets mainly provided by the National Forest Inventory of Finland. Also, the most common empirical forest growth models used in Finland were evaluated and compared against the process-based approach. Reliability of the empirical and process-based summary models was at a similar level in the short run. In longer simulations, the role of mortality and regeneration models becomes increasingly important, so these models require special attention and further developing efforts in both approaches. In warming climate conditions or when testing new kind of management regimes, process-based approaches or hybrid models would be the most reasonable solution. However, further testing of the approach is required for a wider range of site types, tree species, mixed forests, geographical areas, as well as longer simulation periods, in order to draw conclusions of their reliability in larger scale use. There are also several development needs in the tested approach, such as adding nitrogen and water uptake processes to the simulator, linking it with mortality and regeneration models, as well as parameterising the model to peat lands. The developed approach can be expanded to estimating carbon fluxes for large areas with LiDAR data. It could be linked with forest planning frameworks, which would accommodate for carbon balance issues in practical planning and optimisation tasks. The approach contains building blocks for developing a visual tool for examining the effects of forest management in changing environmental and climatic conditions for decision making, research, and policy making purposes.