The greenhouse gas balance of the landscape

It is difficult to measure or even estimate the Dutch greenhouse gas emissions of the landscape, because we cannot put a flux chamber over the entire Netherlands. Greenhouse gas emissions are usually estimated by bottom-up methods or top-down methods. The Netherlands report most emissions to the Kyoto protocol at Tier 2 level, meaning a bottom-up inventory of emissions by using relatively simple linear methods and country-specific data. For bottom-up methods it is important to measure, using measurement chambers, on many different landscape elements and to map these landscape elements accurately. In addition, measurements should be conducted on the largest and most uncertain sources in combination with the occurrence of these sources. These methods will help to reduce the uncertainty. Comparison between simple and complex bottom-up methods can help to gain insight into greenhouse gas emission processes. Top-down methods are capable of estimating emissions from large areas; however they struggle with the difficulty of finding the emission footprint, determining country borders and translating greenhouse gas fluxes to emissions. Model-free verification and Radon measurements can help to solve these problems. Using the proposed methods can contribute to the verification of the national inventory and to the reduction of uncertainties.