Hi!
I’m running the Forest Carbon Edge Effect model, and when I exclude edge effects, all the data aligns correctly with the Carbon Storage layer and with my manual carbon stock calculations. However, when I include edge effects, the forest carbon values increase significantly—well beyond the expected maximum—which seems counterintuitive.
The model outputs suggest that edge effects increase carbon stock compared to the Carbon Storage baseline, whereas I understand they should reduce it. In fact, the carbon value at the forest edge alone is higher than the maximum possible stock.
Has anyone else experienced similar results?
Hi @Amariles
I have been poking around this model and what I’ve realized is that the model, when running the edge effect part, does not consider the c_above value when is_tropical_forest = 1 at all. It does consider the c_above value for all classes when the edge effect option is off. This means, if the c_above values are significantly lower than what the model calculates for them, or, as with the sample data, they are set to n/a, turning on the edge effect option will result in a greater carbon stock calculation.
From this, it sounds like whatever values you are using for c_above are significantly lower than what the model calculates. Assuming your manual calculations are correct, and considering that you said the values are greater than the maximum possible stock, it would seem that the model is assuming a much greater aboveground biomass than it should.
Maybe that’s stating the obvious, or maybe it’s helpful. I don’t know where to go from there troubleshooting, but I hope this helps.