Assessment of operability and readiness of Remote Sensing solutions for MRV of SOC
Authors/Creators
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Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
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University of Freiburg
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Teagasc - The Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority
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Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement
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Wageningen University & Research
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Instituut voor Landbouw en Visserijonderzoek
Description
This deliverable evaluates the operational readiness, technical maturity, and Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) suitability of Earth Observation (EO) and Remote Sensing (RS) solutions for tracking Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) dynamics, carbon removals, and greenhouse gas (GHG) balances in managed agricultural ecosystems. Grounded in the requirements of the EU Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming Certification Framework (CRCF Regulation (EU) 2024/3012) and the MARVIC project, the review fulfils five core objectives:
1. Systematic Mapping: Map available spaceborne, airborne, and proximal RS platforms, sensors, and operational products across four Land Use and Soil Type (LUST) categories: arable land, grasslands, peatlands, and agroforestry systems.
2. Integration Pathways: Examine the computational pathways through which EO data are integrated into SOC-relevant carbon models, distinguishing direct estimation from data assimilation schemes.
3. Biophysical & Activity Retrieval: Evaluate the capacity of remote sensing to directly estimate key biophysical state variables and management activity data across the four LUST categories.
4. Performance & Verification Assessment: Assess the readiness, uncertainty, and operational limits of these RS variables for MRV deployment, highlighting their differentiated suitability for quantification (M and R) versus practice verification (V).
5. OPC Design & Priority Gaps: Translate these readiness insights into concrete architectural design principles, priority structural gaps, and mission continuity pathways for automated Tier 3 Operational Processing Chains (OPCs).
This deliverable establishes that remote sensing, when synergistically integrated into process-based modelling chains via data assimilation, provides a technically mature, scalable, and audit-ready foundation for soil C removals MRV and GHG balances. To secure operational permanence, future OPC architectures must remain modular to ingest next-generation missions. By defining these operational integration pathways across arable, grassland, peatland, and agroforestry systems, this work establishes the foundational technical baseline to guide harmonised, context-specific carbon farming certification across Europe.