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Assess the quality of a blue carbon project

Getting Started with the Blue Carbon Package

Use Earth Blox to carry out a comprehensive quality assessment for your Blue Carbon projects. This package bundles all the required template workflows into a single task, allowing you to seamlessly analyse mangrove extent, water quality, sea surface temperature, potential restorable areas, and biodiversity significance.

Blue carbon ecosystems, particularly mangroves, are critical for carbon sequestration, but they are highly sensitive to environmental and climate conditions. This guide provides a detailed breakdown of each template workflow included in the Assess the quality of a blue carbon project package.


Table of Contents

Template 1: Mangrove Extent

This template offers a detailed look at historical mangrove extent and helps track changes over time across your chosen Area of Interest.

  • Datasets Used: Global Mangrove Watch (GMW) for the historical period (1996–2020) and Dynamic World for recent years (2021 to present).
  • Methodology: For the recent period, flooded vegetation from the Dynamic World dataset is utilised as a reliable proxy to determine mangrove extent.
  • Outputs Generated: The workflow maps out yearly mangrove presence and generates statistical area tables (in hectares) equipped with charts to visualise loss or expansion trends.

Note: As these datasets are derived from different scientific sources (GMW at 30m resolution and Dynamic World at 10m resolution), there may not be a complete alignment between the two time periods covered.


Template 2: Water Quality Indicators

Monitoring the water condition surrounding blue carbon habitats is crucial for validating ecosystem health. This template utilises high-resolution Sentinel-2 MultiSpectral data to calculate two critical water metrics:


The Normalised Difference Chlorophyll Index (NDCI)

Originally designed to predict chlorophyll-a concentration in estuarine and coastal waters, the NDCI helps monitor algae and phytoplankton presence. Values range from -1 to +1:

  • Close to +1: High chlorophyll-a concentration, pointing to a high presence of algae or phytoplankton.
  • Around 0: Moderate concentration, indicating balanced water conditions.
  • Close to -1: Low concentration, meaning minimal algae or phytoplankton are present.

The Normalised Difference Turbidity Index (NDTI)

The NDTI assesses water quality by measuring its clarity, providing insights into the impacts of pollution and sedimentation. Values range from -1 to +1:

  • Close to +1: High turbidity; the water is highly cloudier or murky due to suspended sediments or organic matter.
  • Close to -1: Low turbidity; indicates clear, better overall water quality.

Template 3: Sea Surface Temperature

Climate barriers can severely inhibit project success if coastal waters experience hostile conditions. This template maps out yearly minimum and maximum Sea Surface Temperatures (SST) using MODIS Aqua data.

  • Why it matters: Low or high extreme sea surface temperatures can drastically inhibit and reduce the seedling growth of mangrove propagules when they disperse through seawater.
  • Ecosystem Baseline: The generated dashboard outputs help verify whether your site stays within the optimal window, as mangroves thrive in temperatures of 15–25°C.

Template 4: Potential Restorable Area

Before deploying restoration resources, this template helps identify historical deforestation and degradation zones to highlight where mangroves can be successfully brought back.

  • Datasets Used: Global Mangrove Watch and Tropical Moist Forest (TMF) Transition Map Hybrid Subtypes.
  • Methodology: The workflow analyses areas of historical mangrove change to locate where mangroves were removed or disturbed prior to a 10-year baseline period. It isolates whether the degradation was historic (before 2013) or recent (since 2013).
  • Exclusions: To maintain mapping accuracy, permanent water bodies are masked out of all calculations using the JRC Global Surface Water Mapping Layer.

Template 5: Biodiversity Significance Assessment

To align your blue carbon project with global corporate standards and frameworks like the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), this template computes an integrated significance score for the project area.

The workflow evaluates four primary attributes, each representing a specific target under Goal A of the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF):

  1. Halting the loss of ecosystems with high ecological integrity.
  2. Effective restoration of degraded ecosystems.
  3. Effective conservation of ecologically representative areas.
  4. Halting extinctions and reducing extinction risk.

Metrics and Indexing

Earth Blox blends several state-of-the-art datasets—including the Biodiversity Intactness Index (BII), Ecoregions Intactness Index, Critical Natural Assets Map, and Biodiversity Hotspots proximity models —to scale an overall Location Significance Index between 0 and 1.

  • A final score of 1 represents maximum ecosystem significance across all integrated targets.
  • The dashboard features tables breaking down individual layer responses so you can inspect the exact metrics combining to formulate the final asset score.

Template 6: Checking Sediment Supply and Hydrological Condition

This template tracks the baseline physical environment from 2019 to 2023 to verify that your planting sites have an adequate sediment and water balance.

Normalised Difference Water Index (NDWI)

The workflow processes Sentinel-2 data to calculate the NDWI, which monitors surface moisture changes and distinguishes water features from surrounding land. Values span from -1 to +1:

  • Greater than 0.5: Typically represents open water bodies.
  • 0 to 0.2: Built-up surfaces or soil environments containing partial moisture.
  • Less than 0: Corresponds to dry non-water surfaces like soil and dense vegetation.

A automatic 1km buffer is applied to your project boundary to ensure that key feeder water channels in and around the planting/restoration zones are fully captured.

Soil Classification Integration

Additionally, this workflow references the SoilGrids dataset. This cross-reference determines the primary soil groups within your buffered project area, revealing whether the terrain is dominantly sandy or clay-heavy. Ultimately, these combined pieces of environmental intelligence serve to guide and prioritise your field-based teams as they collect quantitative, in-person data.

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