Scalable Assessment of Soil Organic Carbon for Carbon Incentive Programs: Progress Report

This FY24 BIOAg progress report describes a seed grant developing a machine learning approach to estimate soil organic carbon (SOC) in the top 0–30 cm for carbon incentive programs that aim to reward measured benefits rather than practice adoption. The team is assembling SOC response data from the Washington Soil Health Initiative and integrating multispectral satellite imagery (Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2, Landsat) with environmental and management covariates, including climate variables from gridMET and crop information from WSDA and USDA Crop Data Layers. The unit of analysis will follow the 40-hectare site definition used in the State of the Soils Assessment. Work to date includes recruiting two graduate students, setting up weekly meetings, and progressing on data collation and early model development, with a target paper submission in January 2025. A social dimension component plans a hands-on workshop on remote sensing and data science with partners at Heritage University and Wenatchee Valley College.