Workflow Narrative

Carbon Verification Audit

Problem It Solves

Where did vegetation-linked carbon proxy increase or decrease, and where is confidence high enough for audit triage?

Who It Is For

Carbon program analysts, forest monitoring teams, and environmental verification workflows.

Primary User

Carbon project developers, ESG/MRV teams, and land-management compliance programs.

What It Does

Quantifies baseline-to-current vegetation change using NDVI deltas.
Derives a carbon-proxy change surface with confidence scoring.
Optionally blends LiDAR biomass proxy inputs to strengthen stand-level interpretation.
Produces verification zone polygons and an audit-ready contract output for MRV workflows.

How It Works

Extracts baseline and current red/NIR bands from multiband bundles.
Computes per-date NDVI and signed delta: NDVI_current - NDVI_baseline.
Converts NDVI delta to a carbon-proxy index and computes confidence from vegetation signal and change magnitude.
Optionally blends in biomass proxy values to improve relative stand-level carbon interpretation.
Aggregates pixels into verification blocks and assigns zone-level change class labels (`gain`, `loss`, `unchanged`).
Indicative formula: NDVI = (NIR - Red) / (NIR + Red), carbon_proxy ~= 10 * (NDVI_current - NDVI_baseline).

Why It Wins

Combines change mapping, confidence scoring, zone-level vector outputs, and an audit contract in one reproducible run.

Typical Buying Trigger

Teams need standardized remote-sensing evidence packages ahead of formal carbon verification reporting.

Typical Presets

conservative for stricter gain/loss interpretation thresholds.
balanced for default operational monitoring.
aggressive for early-signal monitoring workflows.

Inputs

Parameter	Optional	Description
baseline_bundle, current_bundle	no	Baseline and current multiband rasters used for NDVI change analysis.
baseline_red_band_index, baseline_nir_band_index	yes	Baseline red/NIR band indices. Defaults: 0, 1.
current_red_band_index, current_nir_band_index	yes	Current red/NIR band indices. Defaults: 0, 1.
biomass_proxy	yes	Optional LiDAR-derived biomass proxy raster for blended carbon-proxy interpretation.
profile: conservative \| balanced \| aggressive	yes	Sensitivity profile controlling gain/loss thresholds and confidence blending behavior.
zone_block_cells	yes	Pixel block size used for verification zone polygon aggregation. Defaults to `16`.
mrv_template	yes	MRV profile: verra_vcs_vm0010, american_carbon_registry, gold_standard, or none.
methodology_reference	yes	Optional methodology lineage note for audit metadata (for example Verra references).
output_prefix	yes	Prefix used to name output artifacts.

Outputs

Parameter	Type	Description
ndvi_baseline	GeoTIFF	Baseline NDVI surface (`*_ndvi_baseline.tif`).
ndvi_current	GeoTIFF	Current NDVI surface (`*_ndvi_current.tif`).
ndvi_delta	GeoTIFF	Signed NDVI change surface (`*_ndvi_delta.tif`).
carbon_proxy	GeoTIFF	Carbon-proxy change index (`*_carbon_proxy.tif`).
change_confidence	GeoTIFF	Confidence raster for change interpretation (`*_change_confidence.tif`).
verification_zones	GeoPackage	Block-aggregated verification polygons with change class and summary attributes (`*_verification_zones.gpkg`).
audit_contract	JSON	Machine-readable audit summary contract (`*_audit_contract.json`).
compliance_evidence_packet	JSON	Submission-oriented compliance evidence packet (`*_compliance_evidence_packet.json`).
regulator_ready_table	CSV	Flat regulator-ready summary table (`*_regulator_ready_table.csv`).
html_report	HTML	Human-readable report generated from the contract for stakeholder review.

Python Example

import whitebox_workflows as wbw

wbe = wbw.WbEnvironment(include_pro=True, tier="pro")

result = wbe.carbon_sequestration_verification_audit(
    baseline_bundle="data/baseline_multiband.tif",
    current_bundle="data/current_multiband.tif",
    baseline_red_band_index=0,
    baseline_nir_band_index=1,
    current_red_band_index=0,
    current_nir_band_index=1,
    biomass_proxy="data/biomass_proxy.tif",
    profile="balanced",
    zone_block_cells=16,
    mrv_template="verra_vcs_vm0010",
    methodology_reference="Verra VM0010 v1.3",
    output_prefix="output/carbon_audit",
)

print(result)

License Notice

Use of this function requires a license for Whitebox Workflows Professional (WbW-Pro). Please visit www.whiteboxgeo.com to purchase a license.

Project Links

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