Tools and Resources
CARBINE is a forest carbon accounting model developed by Forest Research to address questions about the carbon and greenhouse gas balances of forestry systems.
CARBINE is a region-scale forest carbon accounting model that works by aggregating stand-scale estimates. CARBINE can model carbon stocks for 19 different tree species at a range of growth rates and under a variety of management settings. The model outputs the carbon stocks in trees, roots, litter, deadwood, soil and harvested wood product pools.
CARBINE-R is the latest version of the model and is available on request.
The CARBINE model has been in development since 1988 (Thompson & Matthews, 1989), having been first developed in response to the recognised importance of forests for carbon balances in the first meeting of the IPCC.
Since then, the model has undergone significant further development to answer a range of policy questions relating to carbon impacts of forests and harvested wood products in the UK and worldwide. CARBINE has been the model used by the UK for reporting GHG emissions and removals from forests and harvested wood products for the UK Greenhouse Gas Inventory from forests and harvested wood products since 2014.
Further Information on CARBINE.
CARBINE-R is the latest iteration of the model, where it has been re-written in the ‘R’ language to facilitate the model becoming openly accessible. CARBINE-R relies on two C++ models which have been adapted into R packages.
These models are M1R and ScotiaR:
The CARBINE-R model has been made available by Forest Research free of charge.
Access to the model is granted by sending a request with a completed CARBINE Software Access Agreement to ghgi@forestresearch.gov.uk.
The agreement you will need to sign can be downloaded online.
Once we have reviewed your completed form, you will be sent a zipped copy of the RStudio project by file transfer.
CARBINE-R runs on the open-source software known as ‘R’. We recommend running ‘R’ using an interface called ‘RStudio’. CARBINE-R is contained as an ‘RStudio project’. The project folder contains all required input files for a CARBINE-R run.
Further details can be found in the CARBINE-R User Guide and Technical Guide.
The primary aim of the release of the CARBINE-R is to support the transparency and resilience of its application to the UK Greenhouse Gas Inventory. The current functionality supports the ability to run:
Please get in touch to discuss further application, collaboration, and development of CARBINE-R.
For technical support and enquiries relating to CARBINE-R, please contact Forest Research at ghgi@forestresearch.gov.uk
The upgrade and rewrite of CARBINE in R was funded by DESNZ through the DESNZ-FR Memorandum of Understanding Programme (2022-2025).