The effect of management strategies on carbon uptake of highway ancillary areas in Northern Germany

Abstract: Carbon storage capacity estimations of terrestrial vegetation are necessary to understand the limit of possible carbon emissions. General approximations, of a landscapes carbon pool capacity, can be performed using the InVEST-model. It estimates the carbon pool storage of a landscape, based on land use land cover classes, which this thesis aims to test on the highay-ancillary environment of the A7-motorway in northern Germany. Furthermore, the carbon sink capacity is compared to alternative roadside utilization, like the installation of photovoltaic systems. It is also investigated what degree of pool size change can be expected with different management strategies and intensities. The study includes an InVEST-model-approach based GIS analysis of the current carbon pools of the A7-highways ancillary areas, on which different management and planting strategies are executed. The results and discussion show comparative estimations of the total and mean storage capacities of areas under different management regiemes. The effectiveness is also discussed in comparison with the states mean pool values of shrublands, grasslands and forested areas, to delineate the roadside vegetations storage effectiveness. It is found that roadside vegetation is less produtive then Schleswig-Holsteins other landcovers. Typically roadside areas consist of planted vegetation that leads to the smallest total carbon pool and not of management strategies with high levels of effectiveness. Management intensities impact the carbon storage and gentle maintenance leads to higher total storage, but alternative utilization of the ancillary areas leads to the highest total contribution to reaching the goal of a global warming reduction.