National forest carbon inventories: policy needs and assessment capacity

Previous research has identified the importance of the role of land cover in the global carbon cycle. In particular, forests have been identified as a significant carbon sink that can mitigate the rate of global climate change. Policy makers are faced with complex and difficult challenges in getting timely and useful information in monitoring global forest resources. Recent advances in the tools and methods of forest carbon accounting have produced new, innovative approaches to forest-based carbon inventories. But it is important as new tools are developed that scientists understand the needs of policy makers and that policy makers understand the capabilities and limitations of forest inventory methods. This paper explores four different policy applications that rely, or could benefit from, national carbon inventories. The goal is to help build a bridge between the communities of climate policy makers and scientists specialized in forest carbon inventories. To this end, we pursue three specific objectives: First we provide an overview for policy makers about approaches to forest carbon inventories, paying particular attention to the contributions of remote sensing technologies. Second, we outline the issues particularly relevant to forest inventory scientists who are interested in responding to public policy needs. We then discuss the tradeoffs between information cost, accuracy, precision, transparency and timeliness that need to be balanced in long-term monitoring of forest carbon. Finally, the article concludes with a series of observations and recommendations for the implementation of forest carbon inventories as increasingly central components of global climate change policy.     

A method for predicting swelling pressure of compacted bentonites

An approach for predicting swelling pressure of bentonites based on thermodynamic relationships between swelling pressure and suction is presented in this paper. The proposed method requires sorption isotherm data of the bentonites. A series of swelling pressure tests were performed on compacted specimens of bentonite-sand mixtures with different bentonite contents, water contents, and dry densities. The sorption isotherm of the pure bentonite was measured using a chilled-mirror hygrometer. It is found that the method works well for the bentonite-sand mixtures tested. Several published data on bentonites that have been proposed to be used as buffer and sealing material for nuclear waste repository were collected and used to verify the method. The proposed method is found to be also applicable for other bentonites of different types and therefore, can be used to predict swelling pressure of bentonites.