The CSIR have produced a national above-ground biomass map (CSIR_Biomass v1.1)that is available to view as a kml file in googlearth here. This method used remote sensing (ALOS_PULSAR) data to estimate the above ground biomass at 20m resolution throughout South Africa. To enable an assessment of above ground plant biomass in any area of interest, the Biomass Assessment Tool (BAT) spatially estimates the biomass in each compartment of the area of interest. The BAT is available here and the output is a spreadsheet of biomass per compartment.
The biomass data needs to be supplmented with at leas the followoing data:
1. Invasive Alien plants mapped and defined per species, with and indication of plant maturity
2. Veld age
3. Slope
4. Distance to road
The above data is incorprated into the biomass spreadsheet and used as an input to the management unit and control plan (MUCP) that assesses cost of clearing and control. The MUCP is available as a standalone windows programme here. The output of the MUCP is a spreadsheet that indicates the priority compartments and the costs associated with different budgets. The cost recovery from using some of the biomass for value added products is assessed by determinining the biomass that can be accessed and harvested due to slope and road access constraints and the suitability of the biomass for different products based on tree age. This and can be carried out using the MUCP spreadsheet and predefined Value Added Industries lookup table (example here) , with the MUCUP tool. The output is a MUCUP. A working example is shown……..