Land cover change

Land-cover change has long been recognized as having marked effect on the amount of soil organic carbon (SOC). However, the microbially-mediated processes and mechanisms on SOC are still unclear. In this study, the soil samples in a degenerative succession from alpine meadow to alpine steppe meadow in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau were analyzed using high-throughput technologies, including Illumina sequencing and GeoChip functional gene arrays. The soil microbial community structure and diversity were significantly (P < 0.05) different between alpine meadow and alpine steppe meadow, the microbial ɑ-diversity in alpine steppe meadow was significantly (P < 0.01) higher than in alpine meadow. Molecular ecological network analysis indicated that the microbial community structure in alpine steppe meadow was more complex and tighter than in the alpine meadow. The relative abundance of soil microbial labile carbon degradation genes (e.g., pectin and hemicellulose) was significantly hig...

Land cover is one of factors which is important in watershed management. The changes of land cover in a watershed can affect on the hydrology abstraction. Land cover of upstream Citarum watershed is potentially changes. Economy, social, and population are factors that affect the change in land cover. The aim of this research were to analyze spatial change of land cover in upstream Citarum watershed period 2006-2014 with consideration of agricultural land types and predicting future land cover of 2030 as usual and applying a policy to conserve paddy field and forest. Analysis was carried out applying Cellular automata markov chain of land cover spatial model. The result showed that Kappa for image classification was 0.89. Dominant land cover type in upstream Citarum watershed was paddy field of 24.74 -26.06%. The land cover changes approximately between 1-10% with conversion of paddy field to built up area is the dominant change. Model validation of 2014 predicted land cover was 0.947, while Kappa for optimum iteration of 3 was 0.949. The land cover for period 2006-2030 was change approximately 1-10%. The types of land cover that increase in 2030 were built up area and bareland of 10.06% and 0.1%, respectively, while secondary forest, plantation forest, mixed farming, moor, and paddy field were decreasing approximately 0.4, 0.9, 1.2, 10 and 0.1%. Mixed farming and moor have slightly decrease under protection of paddy field and forest scenario compared to prediction results of 2030 BAU, approximately 1.4 and 1.0% than 1.7 and 7.3%.

In order to improve quantification of the spatial distribution of carbon sinks and sources in the conterminous USA, we conduct a nested global atmospheric inversion with consideration of the spatial information of crop production and consumption. Spatially distributed county-level cropland net primary productivity, harvested biomass, soil carbon BGD

Forest fires are a major issue worldwide, and especially in Mediterranean ecosystems where the frequency, extension and severity of wildfire events have increased related to longer and more intense droughts. Open access remote sensing and climate datasets make it possible to describe in detail the precursory environmental conditions triggering major fire events under drought conditions. In this study, a probabilistic methodological approach is proposed and tested to evaluate extreme drought conditions prior to the occurrence of a wildfire in Central Chile, an area suffering an unprecedented prolonged drought. Using 21 years of monthly records of gridded climate and remotely sensed vegetation water status data, we detected that vegetation at the ground level, by means of fine and dead fuel moisture (FDFM), and canopy level, by means of the enhanced vegetation index (EVI) were extremely dry for a period of about 8 months prior to the fire event, showing records that fall into the 2.5%...

Analysis of land-cover change in the seasonal tropical forests of the Southern Yucatán, Mexico presents a number of significant challenges for the fine-scale land-cover information required of land-change science. Subtle variation in mature forest types across the regional ecocline is compounded by vegetation transitions following agricultural landuses. Such complex mapping environments require innovation in multispectral classification methodologies. This research presents an application of a step-wise maximum likelihood/ in-Process Classification Assessment (IPCA) procedure. This hybrid supervised and unsupervised classification methodology allows for exploration of underlying characteristics of Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery in tropical environments. Once spectrally-separable classes have been identified, field data then determine the ecological definition of vegetation types with special attention paid to areas of unknown or mixed classes. A post-field assessment re-classification using the Dempster-Shafer method reduced the original 25 spectral classes to 14 ecologically-distinctive classes, providing the fine-tuned land-cover distinctions that are required for both environmental and socioeconomic research questions. The overall map accuracy was 87% with an average per-class accuracy of 86%. Per-class accuracy (omission errors) ranged from as low as 45% for pasture grass to a high of 100% for tall-stature evergreen upland forest (selva alta perennifolia), for semi-deciduous medium-stature forests (selva baja and mediana subcaducifolia) and deciduous forest (selva caducifolia).

A study was carried out at Karima Village in the Mwea Rice Irrigation Scheme in Kenya to assess the impact of rice husbandry and associated land cover change for mosquito larval abundance. A multi-temporal, land use land cover (LULC) classification dataset incorporating distributions of Anopheles arabiensis aquatic larval habitats was produced in ERDAS Imagine version 8.7 using combined images from IKONOS at 4m spatial resolution from 2005 and Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM)™ classification data at 30-meters spatial resolution from 1988 for Karima. Of 207 larval habitats sampled, most were either canals (53.4%) or paddies (45.9%), and only one habitat was classified as a seep (0.5%). The proportion of habitats that were poorly drained was 55.1% compared with 44.9% for the habitats that were well drained. An LULC base map was generated. A grid incorporating each rice paddy was overlaid over the LULC maps stratifying each cell based on levels of irrigation. Paddies/grid cells were classified as 1) well irrigated and 2) poorly irrigated. Early stages of rice growth showed peak larval production during the early part of the cropping cycle (rainy season). Total LULC change for Karima over 16 years was 59.8%. Of those areas in which change was detected, the LULC change for Karima was 4.30% for rice field to built environment, 8.74% for fallow to built environment, 7.19% for rice field to fallow, 19.03% built to fallow, 5.52% for fallow to rice field, and 8.35% for built environment to rice field. Of 207 aquatic habitats in Karima, 54.1 (n ‫ס‬ 112) were located in LULC change sites and 45.9 (n ‫ס‬ 95) were located in LULC non-change sites. Rice crop LULC maps derived from IKONOS and TM data in geographic information systems can be used to investigate the relationship between rice cultivation practices and higher anopheline larval habitat distribution.

This study aims at estimating trends in spring phenology from vegetation index and air temperature at 2 m height. To this end, we have developed a methodology to infer spring phenological dates from Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Studies (GIMMS) Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) time-series, which are then extrapolated to the period 1948–2006 with the help of Reanalysis data, using its 2 m height air temperature parameter. First, yearly NDVI is fitted to a double-logistic function for the whole extent of the GIMMS database (1981–2003). This fitting procedure allows us to describe, on a yearly basis, the NDVI evolution for each pixel through the estimation of six parameters which include the spring date. Retrieved spring date time-series are then upscaled to Reanalysis database resolution and compared to degree-day amounts. Those degree-day amounts are estimated for various thresholds in order to determine the best thresholds for their calculations on a pixel-by-pi...

To Norden E. Huang, for his help with the EMD decomposition (see chapter 3). To all my past, present and future colleagues at the Global Change Unit, for their help, their support, and their tolerance towards my accent, my music and my wicked sense of humour. Thank you Juan-Carlos for all your help with theoretical aspects of my work. Thank you Guillem for all your help with the computers. Thank you Mireia for your tour of the Valencian rock scene. Thank you Malena, for introducing me to Valencia. Thank you Juan for your unfathomable knowledge. Thank you Mariam for all those little cakes. Thank you Ana for your lentils. Thank you Cristián, for introducing me to Santiago de Chile, and for your friendship now you're here. Thank you Belén for never getting angry when I need you to scan something for me. Thank you Victoria for your accent I'll understand one day. And thank you Jauad, for introducing me to all these people. I do know that thanking all of you for just one little thing does not make you justice, so be sure I'll bring some more of these pancakes to make it up to you all. And finally, to my family and friends. To my family and friends in France, for being there in my absence. I may live far from you, but you're still important to me. To the friends I made here in Spain, if I'm planning to stay longer it's also because of you. To the Camboata Team and the Shaolin Warriors, for bringing me the physical strength to carry on, and to ATTAC-PV and Pobreza Cero, for bringing me the mental strength to carry on.

A remote sensing based land cover change assessment methodology is presented and applied to a case study of the Oil Sands Mining Development in Athabasca, Alta., Canada. The primary impact was assessed using an information extraction method applied to two LANDSAT scenes. The analysis based on derived land cover maps shows a decrease of natural vegetation in the study area (715,094 ha) for 2001 approximately À8.64% relative to 1992. Secondary assessment based on a key resources indicator (KRI), calculated using normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI measurements acquired by NOAA-AVHRR satellites), air temperature and global radiation was performed for a time period from 1990 to 2002. KRI trend analysis indicates a slightly decreasing trend in vegetation greenness in close proximity to the mining development. A good agreement between the time series of inter-annual variations in NDVI and air temperature is observed increasing the confidence of NDVI as an indicator for assessing vegetation productivity and its sensitivity to changes in local conditions.

The integration of GIS technologies in agriculture offers new opportunities for optimizing fertilization, irrigation and crop management. This paper explores the applicability of spatial analytics in agricultural land monitoring, using geospatial data to assess soil variability and plant health. The case study focuses on an agricultural holding in Eastern Romania, where differences in productivity and resource use efficiency are analyzed according to local conditions. By assessing the impact of data-driven decisions, the research provides practical insights for more sustainable and economically efficient agriculture.

The CAESAR (Cellular Automaton Evolutionary Slope And River) model is used to demonstrate significant differences in coarse sediment transfer and alluviation in medium sized catchments when responding to identical Holocene environmental changes. Simulations for four U.K. basins (the Rivers Swale, Ure, Nidd and Wharfe) shows that catchment response, driven by climate and conditioned by land cover changes, is synchronous but varies in magnitude. There are bursts of sediment transfer activity, generally of rapid removal but with some sediment accumulation dspikesT, with longer periods of slow removal or accumulation of sediment in different valley reaches. Within catchments, reach sensitivity to environmental change varies considerably: some periods are only recorded in some reaches, whilst higher potential sensitivity typically occurs in the piedmont areas of the catchments modelled here. These differential responses appear to be highly non-linear and may relate to the passage of sediment waves, by variable local sediment storage and availability, and by large-and small-scale thresholds for sediment transfer within each catchment. Differential response has major implications for modelling fluvial systems and the interpretation of field data. Model results are compared with the record of dated alluvial deposits in the modelled catchments.

The Brazilian Amazon is an area of both serious environmental degradation and social instability. Despite billions of dollars spent on economic development and the rapid pace of urbanization, deforestation is extreme and violent land conflict is intense. Although episodes of conflict over land are common in Brazilian history, this paper focuses on agrarian issues that arose with the opening of

The widespread poor agricultural practices and ancient technologies continuously aggravate erosion of sediments and soil nutrients from delicate terrains at the major catchments of water shades. The ongoing study is assessing soil and nutrient losses in the four major land use covers (forest, pasture, tea and maize farms) in the upper catchment of Nyondo River Basin. The study sites in the upper catchment of Nyondo River Basin are densely populated and receive bimodal rains that support agriculture which is the main economic activity supporting livelihoods of the communities in the region. The experiment is laid in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with each of the land use covers replicated 3 times with erosion traps mounted on 150 m plots. First data set was collected during the short rainy season of 2019 and long rainy season of 2020, with subsequent data collection continuing up to the short rainy season of 2021. Preliminary results showed that soil and nutrients were si...

In the second half of the 20th Century, during which Turkey has experienced rapid industrialization and urbanization, Istanbul has been the destination of influx of large scale rural to urban migrants. Between 1950 and 2000, the city has grown by an average of 4.5% annually. The city has been the preferred destination not only by large numbers of low skilled rural migrants who seek employment in various informal sectors, but also by capital owners looking for a large scale cheap labor source and an extensive local market. Besides, Istanbul provides a relatively well established basic infrastructure (e.g. transportation and services) compared to the rest of Turkey. Given the scale of the growth, neither local nor the central governments have shown capability of controlling the influx of migration, most of which settled illegally on public lands creating low quality low cost housing and industrial environments. Most of the settlements lack the basic sewerage facilities, and a significant portion of which are on the major water resource basins. As of today, the Greater Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (GIMM) not only has to cope with the infrastructure problems, but also has to find ways of solving the problem of illegal occupations of public lands and water resource basins. This paper presents the land use changes in the water resource basins providing water to the Istanbul Metropolitan Area. Using four consecutive Landsat images between 1990 and 2005, the changes in 12 different land use categories are obtained via overlay operations by GIS for water resource basins surrounding the City of Istanbul. It has been observed that the most critical land use changes are in the nearest basins to the city. It has also been observed that large public capital improvement projects such as Trans-European Motorway (TEM) contributed to the trend of illegal occupation of these public lands; however it should not be considered as the sole reason. The capability of Landsat images in determining the alterations in the macro form of the city are also discussed. Finally, possible policy implications are put forward for the preservation of water resource basins in Istanbul.

Land-cover change in eastern Bolivia was documented using Landsat images from five epochs for all landscapes situated below the montane tree line at approximately 3000 m, including humid forest, inundated forest, seasonally dry forest, and cloud forest, as well as scrublands and grasslands. Deforestation in the eastern Bolivia in 2004 covered 45,735 km2, representing ~9% of the original forest cover, with an additional conversion of 9,050 km2 of scrub and savanna habitats representing 17% of total historical land cover change. Annual rates of land cover change increased from 450 km2 yr-1 in the 1960s to ~2,900 km2 yr-1 in the last epoch spanning 2001 to 2004. This study provides Bolivia with a spatially explicit information resource to monitoring future land cover change, prerequisite for proposed mechanisms to compensate countries for reducing carbon emissions as a result of deforestation. It also shows that policies to limit deforestation had no observable impact on reducing defor...

Land-cover change in eastern lowland Bolivia was documented using Landsat images from five epochs for all landscapes situated below the montane tree line at approximately 3000 m, including humid forest, inundated forest, seasonally dry forest, and cloud forest, as well as scrublands and grasslands. Deforestation in eastern Bolivia in 2004 covered 45 411 km 2 , representing ;9% of the original forest cover, with an additional conversion of 9042 km 2 of scrub and savanna habitats representing 17% of total historical land-cover change. Annual rates of land-cover change increased from ;400 km 2 y À1 in the 1960s to ;2900 km 2 y À1 in the last epoch spanning 2001 to 2004. This study provides Bolivia with a spatially explicit information resource to monitor future land-cover change, a prerequisite for proposed mechanisms to compensate countries for reducing carbon emissions as a result of deforestation. A comparison of the most recent epoch with previous periods shows that policies enacted in the late 1990s to promote forest conservation had no observable impact on reducing deforestation and that deforestation actually increased in some protected areas. The rate of land-cover change continues to increase linearly nationwide, but is growing faster in the Santa Cruz department because of the expansion of mechanized agriculture and cattle farms.

This thesis describes palaeoenvironmental investigations on Bodmin Moor aimed at determining the timing, nature and extent of human induced environmental change on the moor. Pollen, charcoal and loss-on-ignition investigations were carried out at two main areas with chronological control provided by radiocarbon dating. The first area investigated was Rough Tor where five sequences were examined. Palynological analysis of these sequences demonstrated that the early vegetation cover of the moors was dense hazel scrub with oak and birch as components of the local woodland. Clearance of this woodland began in the Neolithic and led to the spread of grassland and expansion of alder onto the damper soils of the upland slopes. Intensified clearance marks the Bronze Age, with the almost complete destruction of local tree and shrub cover. There is no evidence for cultivation and landuse was mainly pastoral. A reduction in anthropogenic activity at some point in the third millennium BP resulted in the expansion of trees and shrubs, although some form of activity probably continued nearby. Renewed clearance activity in the Iron Age/Romano-British period points to human interest in the higher moorland in this period. The development of meadow at Rough Tor North suggests continuing pastoral activity into the historical period. The medieval settlement and cultivation of the Rough Tor moors is evident in the demise of meadow, appearance of cereal pollen and spread of acid grassland.

Chikwawa District has experienced significant urban development, agricultural expansion, and population growth over the years. The study analyzed Landsat Satellite images from 1979, 1995, 2009, and 2023 to assess land use and land cover changes. The CA-Markov chain model, a spatially explicit model that integrates cellular automata and Markov chains, was applied to predict future land use and land cover (LULC) scenarios for 2035, 2045, and 2065. The Spearman rank correlation coefficient (ρ) was used to assess the statistical significance of changes in land cover classes. The results show that the Random Forest classification method yielded the highest accuracy, with Kappa values of 85, 86, 86, and 90%, and overall accuracy of 88, 90, 90, and 93% for the years 1979, 1995, 2009, and 2023, respectively. Over a 44-year period, land cover changes revealed a 21% decrease in forest, 3% in vegetation, and 0.3% in water bodies, while built-up areas and bare land increased by 22 and 16%. Predicted future changes indicate further decreases in forest cover (-28.6,-33.8, and-51%), vegetation (-12.9,-19.8, and-24.7%), and water (-28.2,-12.3, and-14%), with increases in built-up areas (+23.2, +22.2, and +22.8%) and bare land (+13, +15.3, and +37.1%) for the periods 2035-2023, 2045-2035, and 2065-2045, respectively. The CA-Markov model validated the predictive results, demonstrating a good too perfect agreement with the actual data for the years 2009, 2011, and 2023. The decline in vegetation and water bodies exacerbates the potential for environmental degradation, which could lead to greater vulnerability to climate change impacts, such as floods and droughts. This underscores the necessity for policy interventions to regulate land conversion, promote sustainable agricultural practices, and implement effective land-use planning frameworks.

The alien tree species Spathodea campanulata forms monodominant stands in abandoned agricultural lands in Puerto Rico. In July 2005, we excavated three replicate randomly located soil pits (25 by 25 by 30 cm) in each of six stands of Spathodea. Three of the stands were located in the moist alluvial geoclimatic zone and three were in the moist karst geoclimatic zone, all in the north coast of Puerto Rico. We examined all the soil by hand, sampled, and counted all the earthworms, determined their fresh weight, and identified them to species. Earthworms were absent from all nine pits in the karst forest. Earthworm density in the alluvial forest averaged 84/m 2 or 279/m 3 , representing an earthworm fresh weight of 47 g/m 2 or 157 g/m 3 . Four species of earthworms were present in our sampling: Onychochaeta borincana, Pontoscolex spiralis, P. cynthiae, and P. corethrurus. Of these, P. corethrurus is an alien, and the other three are native species. Pontoscolex spiralis usually lives in wet conditions, while O. borincana and P. corethrurus are indicators of disturbed conditions. The density and biomass of earthworms in the alluvial forest are comparable to density and biomass in other Puerto Rican forests. The absence of earthworms in the same kinds of stands in karst forests may imply either a clumped distribution of earthworms in those forests or else the animals were located deeper in the soil profile. KEYWORDS.-alien species, earthworms, alluvial forests, karst forests, Spathodea campanulata, Puerto Rico, land cover change ms. received ms.

Combining multiple neural networks has been used to improve the decision accuracy in many application fields including pattern recognition and classification. In this paper, we investigate the potential of this approach for land cover change detection. In a first step, we perform many experiments in order to find the optimal individual networks in terms of architecture and training rule. In the second step, different neural network change detectors are combined using a method based on the notion of fuzzy integral. This method combines objective evidences in the form of network outputs, with subjective measures of their performances. Various forms of the fuzzy integral, which are, namely, Choquet integral, Sugeno integral, and two extensions of Sugeno integral with ordered weighted averaging operators, are implemented. Experimental analysis using error matrices and Kappa analysis showed that the fuzzy integral outperforms individual networks and constitutes an appropriate strategy to increase the accuracy of change detection.

The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) is a research facility instrument provided by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), Tokyo, Japan to be launched on NASA's Earth Observing System morning (EOS-AM1) platform in 1998. ASTER has three spectral bands in the visible near-infrared (VNIR), six bands in the shortwave infrared (SWIR), and five bands in the thermal infrared (TIR) regions, with 15-, 30-, and 90-m ground resolution, respectively. The VNIR subsystem has one backward-viewing band for stereoscopic observation in the along-track direction. Because the data will have wide spectral coverage and relatively high spatial resolution, we will be able to discriminate a variety of surface materials and reduce problems in some lower resolution data resulting from mixed pixels. ASTER will, for the first time, provide high-spatial resolution multispectral thermal infrared data from orbit and the highest spatial resolution surface spectral reflectance temperature and emissivity data of all of the EOS-AM1 instruments. The primary science objective of the ASTER mission is to improve understanding of the local-and regional-scale processes occurring on or near the earth's surface and lower atmosphere, including surface-atmosphere interactions. Specific areas of the science investigation include the following: 1) land surface climatology; 2) vegetation and ecosystem dynamics; 3) volcano monitoring; 4) hazard monitoring; 5) aerosols and clouds; 6) carbon cycling in the marine ecosystem; 7) hydrology; 8) geology and soil; and 9) land surface and land cover change. There are three categories of ASTER data: a global map, regional monitoring data sets, and local data sets to be obtained for requests from individual investigators. The ASTER instrument will have a limited (8%) duty cycle. Prioritization of data acquisition requests will be based on such factors as data category, user category, and science discipline.

The change from natural forest cover to tea and Eucalyptus is rampant in protected areas of western Uganda. The objectives were; to examine the trend in land-use /cover change and determine the effect of these changes on the physico-chemical properties of soils around Kibale National Park. The trend in land use/cover change was assessed by analyzing a series of landsat images. Focused group discussions and key informant interviews were used for land-use/cover reconstruction. Three major land uses were included; woodlot (Eucalyptus grandis; 5 years old) ), tea (57 years old) and natural forest used as a control. Each of these land-uses were selected at two different North facing landscape positions and were replicated three times. A total of 36 composite soil samples were taken at 0–15 and 15–30 cm depth from natural forest, Tea plantation and eucalyptus on three ridges. Results showed that small scale farming, tea and eucalyptus plantation and built up area have increased over time,...

The development of the coastline in Cua Viet outlet area from 1952 to 2015 was quantitatively evaluated using remote sensing technique and geographic information system (GIS). The result of the research shows that in the Cua Viet outlet area the accretion and erosion phenomena occur in a very complex manner, with erosion predominating over accretion in both scale and intensity, in which the coast sections with the largest scale and highest intensity of erosion are usually located near the outlet (both inside and outside the outlet). In the coast section inside the outlet, the erosion on the northern side occurs more intensively than on the southern side, with the erosion rate reaching -1.51 to -2.24 m/year, whereas the accretion rate is 1.15 to 1.70 m/year. The ratio between the erosional and accretional rates is 1.0 to 1.5 times. In the coast section outside the outlet, erosion occurs much more intensively, with its rate from -2.74 to -8.18 m/year, whereas the accretion rate is only 0.12 to 2.41 m/year. The ratio between the erosion and accretion is 1.0 to 38 times. Recently, the newly-built Cua Viet seawall has partially reduced the process of coastal erosion, the beach starts to consolidate in the foot area.

This paper shows how the slow process of forestland restitution, which is unfolding in Romania since 1991 has eroded the threads of sustainable forest management by an insidious institutional amnesia (IA). The four symptoms of this harmful process (frequent reorganization, transition from paperwork to electronic media, fewer people motivated to join public services, and popularity of radical changes) were analyzed from the legal standing point as well as from practitioners’ perspective. After having described the legal process and the relative dependencies between laws and government ordinances we also showed that the three laws on forestland restoration (three fully operational laws and two bills submitted in 2019, one year before general elections) were produced by unintended policy arrangements. The legal loopholes of forestland restitution were described in details as well as the challenges brought about by nature conservation policy (Natura 2000 management plans v traditional f...

Ð This paper decomposes recent deforestation in four study areas in the Brazilian Amazon into components associated with large ranches and small producers. It then assesses in an inferential framework small producer deforestation with respect to the proximate causes of their farming systems, and the household drivers of their farming system choices. It is shown that, for areas with substantial in-migration of small producers, forest clearance at the household level is mainly attributable to the availability of hired labor, and not to household labor force or the physical capital at their disposal. The paper conducts the inferential analysis of small producer deforestation using measures of forest clearance taken from satellite image classi®cation and directly from ®eld surveys. A substantial discrepancy in the measures is identi®ed, which has implications for household level research on land cover change.

The Ghodaghodi Lake Complex is a Ramsar site, Nepal’s first bird sanctuary, and has significant ecological and economic values. The lake complex is in the western part of the lowland of the Terai region. Numerous studies indicate a relation between the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), land use, and land cover with plant diversity. However, the association between terrestrial plant diversity and NDVI in the Ghodaghodi Lake Complex is unknown but has important implications due to potential land use changes. We aimed to understand the relationship between plant diversity and NDVI in the Ghodaghodi Lake Complex. We performed a vegetation survey using a simple random sampling methodology. Shannon–Wiener’s diversity index (H’) was calculated from the field data, and Landsat images were used to compare land use and land cover changes and calculate NDVI values for 2000 and 2022. The image classification shows that forest cover in April and December 2000 was 71.1% and 58.5%, re...

Climate and land use/cover changes are potential drivers of change in hydrology and water use. Incidences of these factors on Bandama hydrological basin and Kossou hydropower generation (1981–2016) in West Africa are assessed in this present work. Using Landsat products of United Stated Geological Survey, results show that water bodies areas and land use have increased by 1.89%/year and 11.56%/year respectively, whereas herbaceous savanna, savanna, forest and evergreen forest coverage have been reduced by 1.39%/year, 0.02%/year, 2.39%/year and 3.33%/year respectively from 1988 to 2016. Hydroclimatic analysis reveals that streamflow presents greater change in magnitude compared to rainfall though both increasing trends are not statistically significant at annual scale. Streamflow varies at least four (two) times greatly than the rainfall (monthly and seasonally) annually except during driest months probably due to land use/cover change. In contrast, Kossou hydropower generation is si...

Geodetic rectifications of Landsat-4 and Landsat-5 TM data in CCT-pt formats have produced RMSExy values of '0.23 to '0.93 pixel for data sets of Iowa and Georgia. Polynomials of the first degree and as few as four GCPs have proved sufficient to fit full-and quadrant-sized scenes to the UTM map coordinate system to subpixel accuracies. Comparisons of data sets produced on Scrounge and TIPS indicate a slight geometric superiority for the TIPS. System and scene corrected Landsat-5 CCT-pt's of Iowa cast on the UTM projection and processed on TIPS produced residual errors of k0.23 and 20.26 pixel, respectively. These values are within NMAS for 1:24,000 scale maps. Overall, the Landsat-4 and Landsat-5 TM data meet accuracy stahdards for maps of 1:50,000 scale or smaller and are well-suited for image maps of 1:100,000 scale. Other cartographic applications include the revision of existing maps and the production of orthoimages from DEMs prepared from sidelapping data sets by automatic stereo correlation techniques.

In the West African Sahel, two paradoxical hydrological behaviors have occurred during the last five decades. The first paradox was observed during the 1968-1990s 'Great Drought' period, during which runoff significantly increased. The second paradox appeared during the subsequent period of rainfall recovery (i.e., since the 1990s), during which the runoff coefficient continued to increase despite the general re-greening of the Sahel. This paper reviews and synthesizes the literature on the drivers of these paradoxical behaviors, focusing on recent works in the West African Sahelo/Sudanian strip, and upscaling the hydrological processes through an analysis of recent data from two representative areas of this region. This paper helps better determine the respective roles played by Land Use/Land Cover Changes (LULCC), the evolution of rainfall intensity and the occurrence of extreme rainfall events in these hydrological paradoxes. Both the literature review and recent data converge in indicating that the first Sahelian hydrological paradox was mostly driven by LULCC, while the second paradox has been caused by both LULCC and climate evolution, mainly the recent increase in rainfall intensity.

and Conclusions 1. Is there urban enhancement of N deposition?: Yes -deposition of direct reaction products such as NO 2 are increased by up to one order of magnitude close to the urban core areas where they are produced. Our model results indicate that NO x -derived dry deposition IS a significant term in the ecosystem N balance, comprising 20% of the total annual N inputs to the CAP study area. The most important determinants of NO x -derived N deposition flux are ambient concentrations of NO x species in the atmosphere and the amount of vegetated surface cover (Figure ). For more accurate simulation of N dry deposition rates it is essential to obtain good representation of the amount and type of vegetated surface when applying 3-D Eulerian air quality models. 4. Implications: Elevated N deposition on non-reactive urban surfaces, can lead to high concentrations of nutrients on these surfaces and in the first-flush runoff during rainfall events. Amounts of inorganic N on asphalt parking lot surfaces across the Phoenix metro area averaged 40.2 mg m -2 for NH 4 -N and 151.1 mg m -2 for NO 3 -N, values that were 13 -91 times higher than measured in surface samples of undeveloped desert soils outside the city (Hope et al. submitted b).

complete faith in my abilities and helped me become more meaningful researcher. I am also thankful to Dr. Hershey, my committee member, who shared her knowledge and experience about the North Slope, Alaska, with me and helped me improve readability of this dissertation. The contribution by Dr. Stephen Whalen, who was my external committee member, cannot be summed up with words. He challenged limits in limnology and provided constant encouragement. Without his guidance this dissertation was not possible. I would like express my gratitude towards Dr. Zhi-Jun Liu, who also my committee member, for sharing a great deal of statistical expertise with me. His support made it possible to explore various statistical techniques, then new to me and his comments made my dissertation more meaningful. Among my colleagues, I would like thank Dr. Debasish Chaudhuri who helped my smooth transition into UNCG and helped me in every possible aspect. I don't have any words for my really helpful and supportive friends, Mary Hall-Brown and Leanne Sulewski. They made me feel completely at home and constantly encouraged me to make my research better. I owe my deepest gratitude to Leanne Sulewski who took the painful job of editing this dissertation for me. How could I complete my duties in the geography department without timely help and friendly support by Ms. Lois Carney and Ms. Ruth Canon? I also thank Head of the Department, Dr. Jeff Patton for his advice and constant support. v Additionally, I am thankful to my all my friends; Sarika Kshirsagar, Shirish Manchi, Sagar Mysorekar, and Archana Waran for constant emotional support. Last but not least, I would like to thank my sister Archana, niece Saisha, and brother-in-law Shripad for their support.

In Nigeria, desertification has become one of the most pronounced ecological disasters, with the impacts mostly affecting eleven frontline States. This has been attributed to a range of both nat-ural and man-made factors. This study applied a remote sensing-based change detection and indicator analysis to explore land use/land cover changes and detect major conversions from ecologically active land covers to sand dunes. Results indicate that areas covered by sand dunes (a major indicator of desertification) have doubled over the 25 years under consideration (1990 to 2015). Although about 0.71 km2 of dunes have been converted to vegetation, indicative of the success of various international, national, local, and individual afforestation efforts, conversely about 10.1 km2 of vegetation were converted to sand dunes, implying around 14 times more de-forestation compared to afforestation. Juxtaposing the progression of sand dune with climate records of the study area and examining the re...

Studies have shown that the significance of infrastructural facilities is dependent on their availability and spatial distribution. This study investigates the spatial distributional pattern of existing infrastructural facilities in twenty selected rural communities in the oil and non-oil producing areas of Akwa Ibom State. Spatial data were collected on the facilities through field inventory. The study adopted location quotient, Gini coefficient, and the standard score analytical techniques to analyse the spatial concentration, inequality, and infrastructure gaps in the study area. The results revealed a significant variation in the infrastructure distribution with varying degrees of locational concentration, deficiencies, and inequalities. The oil-producing area has four privileged communities, best served with education, health, and water infrastructure. About 51% of the population lives above the income poverty line. In comparison, the non-oil producing area has three privileged communities, best served with small-scale industry and commercial infrastructure. About 45% of the population lives above the income poverty line. It can be concluded that there is a spatial inequality in the provision and distribution of the infrastructural facilities between the oil and non-oil producing areas. The paper recommends enhanced infrastructure investment in underserved areas and an adherence to an optimal location standard to promote equity and spatial balance in the infrastructure provision.

The importance of accurate and timely information describing the nature and extent of land resources and changes over time is increasing, especially in mountainous areas. We have developed a methodology to map and monitor land cover change using multitemporal Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and ASTER data in

The use of remotely sensed data as input into geographical information systems has promoted new interest in issues related to the accuracy of multispectral classification. This paper investigates the impact of classification uncertainty on the estimation of area from satellite derived land-cover data. Applying four variant; of the maximumlikelihood classifier, it is shown that the estimated area for different land-cover classes is highly influenced by the methods which are used for classifier training. To evaluate the uncertainty of area estimates, a new error modeling strategy is proposed. Assuming that attribute uncertainty in image classification is field-based rather than pixelbased, the image is segmented in fields according to similarities in the probability vectors of adjacent pixels. In simulating uncertainty, this field structure is explicitly taken into account. Using different strategies for image segmentation, it is shown that the spatial correlation of classification un...

Generally, it is believed that change in climate is driven by natural and human induced disturbances of the earth energy balance. In Nigeria, the perturbation of the earth energy balance is caused majorly by human induced carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is an important heat-trapping greenhouse gas, which is released through human activities such as deforestation and burning fossil fuels, as well as natural processes such as respiration. The study examined the relative influence of XCO2 on climate variables and rice yield in Ohafia, Abia State, Nigeria. The instrument used was the Greenhouse Gas Observation Satellite (GOSAT), which uses the Thermal and Near Infrared Sensor for Carbon Observation- Fourier Transform Spectrometer (TANSO-FTS). Transform Spectrometer (FTS) exporter tool was used for scanning XCO2. Regression model and forecast model were also employed in the study. The results indicated that from 2009 to 2020, XCO2 increased from 390.98 ppmv to 399.59 ppmv. Maximum temperature moved from 32.51℃ to 33.23℃ and minimum temperature fluxed between 17.38℃ to 14.12℃. Radiation increased from 86.93 to 89.23 W/m2 and albedo fluxed around 0.16 to 0.15. Relative humidity decreased from 87.69% to 85.31% and precipitation fluxed between 1,518.75 mm to 1,608.4 mm. Rice yield fluxed between 19306 100g/ha to 26709 100g/ha. The rice yield graph shows that rice yield from 2021 to 2030 is expected to be constant at 19,794.97 100g/ha if XCO2 continues to increase from 400 to 404.83 ppmv. This means maximum temperature is expected to be constant at 32.59℃ and minimum temperature may decrease from 17.05℃ to 15.88℃. Radiation may increase from 89.59 to 99.3 and albedo is expected to remain at 0.16. Relative humidity is expected to decrease from 85.64% to 84% and precipitation is expected to be constant at 1,781.984 mm. The study therefore recommended that an ambiguous target of 30% reduction of carbon dioxide should be set to reduce the level of carbon dioxide increase in the atmosphere before 2025 or 2030.

This study uses a global terrestrial carbon cycle model (the Carnegie‐Ames‐Stanford Approach (CASA) model), a satellite‐derived map of existing vegetation, and global maps of natural vegetation to estimate the effects of human‐induced land cover change on carbon emissions to the atmosphere and net primary production. We derived two maps approximating global land cover that would exist for current climate in the absence of human disturbance of the landscape, using a procedure that minimizes disagreements between maps of existing and natural vegetation that represent artifacts in the data. Similarly, we simulated monthly fields of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, required as input to CASA, for the undisturbed land cover case. Model results estimate total carbon losses from human‐induced land cover changes of 182 and 199 Pg for the two simulations, compared with an estimate of 124 Pg for total flux between 1850 and 1990 [Houghton, 1999], suggesting that land cover change pri...

Forest monitoring is a major concern today due to climate changes, conservation of fauna and flora and to the lack of water. Therefore, several environmental monitoring techniques have been developed and used to detect changes in the scenes. However, the main techniques have limitations related to weather conditions and does not have the expected effect. The use of SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) seems appropriate to detect changes due to its independence of atmospheric and lighting conditions. The SAR change detection is a process that uses SAR images acquired in the same geometric conditions but in different moment (multitemporal) to identify changes in the surface that occurred between two acquisitions. This paper presents a new method of change detection in multitemporal SAR orthoimages using the difference between them. The novelty of this method is the detection threshold definition: it is usually an orthoimages difference function, but in this method it is calculated using onl...

Our final project sought to explore sophisticated methods in monitoring degrees of change in vegetation. We focused on quantifying change detection in the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest by applying the Change Vector Analysis (CVA) to Kauth-Thomas transformed data. Scenes of Landsat TM and ETM+ (1993 and 2000) data were acquired for this project and covered an area of the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest where a conservation research center called Iracambi is located. The imagery underwent several levels of pre-processing before an analysis of change detection was employed. The change vector analysis allowed for land-change classification without defined calibration sites and produced two images of change, being direction and magnitude. The direction image allowed for estimation of areas that had experienced deforestation, reforestation, or persistent levels of vegetation, and the magnitude image distinguished between areas of low, medium, high and extreme change. These two images were then combined with the CROSSTAB module in IDRISI to estimate the degree to which each area had experienced a particular type of change.

Forest fires and forest biodiversity are related issues of major concern in Mediterranean countries and require an integrated approach to landscape planning. The aim of this study was to develop a GIS approach for regulating forest production while promoting landscape diversity and mitigating fire hazard. A study area located in the centre of Portugal was chosen. The area was primarily occupied by maritime pine and had a high fire hazard, low tree species diversity and an extensive protection area. The classical area control method was used to assist in forest production regulation. Species suitability maps were produced for 21 recommended species for afforestation in the study area. Maritime pine management compartments were defined, and a 50-year harvesting plan was proposed. In each harvested compartment, protection areas were identified for species conversion (e.g., native oaks and/or broadleaves). Afforestation species were proposed according to the species suitability maps produced earlier. Low flammability species that produce high-quality wood, non-wood products and landscape enhancement were preferred. A comparison of the land cover in the study area in 2007 to that anticipated in 2064 via the proposed plan showed that a more fragmented landscape structure could be achieved by introducing 16 species of lower flammability than maritime pine into the study area. This study proved the usefulness of this methodological approach for guiding sustainable changes in homogeneous, unmanaged forest landscapes prone to fire. Further research is needed regarding integrated planning approaches that incorporate environmental, economic and social dimensions (e.g., human desertification of rural areas).

Cette thèse vise à identifier et évaluer les impacts biogéophysiques des changements d'usage des sols depuis les 150 dernières années jusqu'à la fin du XXIe siècle sur le climat en Afrique de l’Ouest à partir des modèles LUCID et des scénarios CMIP5 utilisés dans le contexte LUCID-CMIP5. Les analyses menées dans cette thèse se sont d'abord basées dans le Sahel et dans le Golfe de Guinée où les changements passés de la couverture terrestre sont supérieurs à 5%. Les simulations LUCID ont été d'abord évaluées dans cette thèse en comparant les précipitations et la température de l'air simulées par les modèles aux données d'observation. Les analyses ont montré que la moyenne et la variabilité inter-annuelle observées des précipitations et de la température sont respectivement sous-estimées et surestimées par la plupart des modèles de climat LUCID même si la température semble mieux simulée que les précipitations. Dans cette étude, les deux simulations actuelles fo...

Cette these vise a identifier et evaluer les impacts biogeophysiques des changements d'usage des sols depuis les 150 dernieres annees jusqu'a la fin du XXIe siecle sur le climat en Afrique de l’Ouest a partir des modeles LUCID et des scenarios CMIP5 utilises dans le contexte LUCID-CMIP5. Les analyses menees dans cette these se sont d'abord basees dans le Sahel et dans le Golfe de Guinee ou les changements passes de la couverture terrestre sont superieurs a 5%. Les simulations LUCID ont ete d'abord evaluees dans cette these en comparant les precipitations et la temperature de l'air simulees par les modeles aux donnees d'observation. Les analyses ont montre que la moyenne et la variabilite inter-annuelle observees des precipitations et de la temperature sont respectivement sous-estimees et surestimees par la plupart des modeles de climat LUCID meme si la temperature semble mieux simulee que les precipitations. Dans cette etude, les deux simulations actuelles fo...

In this paper we explore the use of Probabilistic Latent Semantic Analysis (PLSA) as a method for quantifying semantic differences between land cover classes. The results are promising, revealing 'hidden' or not easily discernable data concepts. PLSA provides a 'bottom up' approach to interoperability problems for users in the face of 'top down' solutions provided by formal ontologies. We note the potential for a meta-problem of how to interpret the concepts and the need for further research to reconcile the topdown and bottom-up approaches.

The present study focuses on analyzing the precipitation trends over six Indian cities during the summer monsoon (June–September) covering the period 1951–2007 and also attempting to investigate possible urban forcing and dynamics by examining the variation in precipitation in the upwind and downwind directions. The analysis shows negative trends in the total number of rainy days over Hyderabad (−10.4%), Kanpur (−7.1%), Jaipur (−10.5%), and Nagpur (−4.8%) and positive trends over Delhi (7.4%) and Bangalore (22.9%). On the other hand, decreases of −21.3%, −5.9%, −14.2%, and −14.6% in seasonal rainfall are found over Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, and Kanpur, respectively, whereas Bangalore and Nagpur show 65.8% and 13.5% increase. The lesser rainfall and rainy days, along with the mostly declining trend, in the downwind directions of the cities may imply an urban influence in precipitation associated with the increased anthropogenic emissions due to expansion of the urban areas and the in...

Tropical mountain regions are prone to landslide hazards. Given the current land pressure with increasing occupation of steep uplands, landslide hazards are expected to increase in the near future. Understanding the factors that control landslide hazards is therefore essential. Rare event logistic regression allows us to perform a robust detection of landslide controlling factors. This technique is here applied to the tropical Andes to evaluate the impact of dynamic land cover changes on landslide occurrences. Land cover change trajectories (i.e. dynamic evolution of land cover through time) were specifically included in the probabilistic landslide analysis. While natural physical processes such as slope undercutting by rivers and failure of oversteepened slopes are important in this tropical mountainous site, landslides are increasingly associated with human activities. The data show that land cover trajectories are associated with landslide patterns. In this humid mountainous site, forest degradation does not lead to a measurable increase in landslide occurrence. However, few years after forests are converted to pastures, a rapid decline of slope stability is observed. Land cover conversion from forest to pasture permanently reduces slope stability. It is assumed that major changes in soil properties and hydrology induced by the vegetation conversion play a role in accelerating landslide hazards.

Tropical mountain regions are prone to landslide hazards. Given the current land pressure with increasing occupation of steep uplands, landslide hazards are expected to increase in the near future. Understanding the factors that control landslide hazards is therefore essential. Rare event logistic regression allows us to perform a robust detection of landslide controlling factors. This technique is here applied to the tropical Andes to evaluate the impact of dynamic land cover changes on landslide occurrences. Land cover change trajectories (i.e. dynamic evolution of land cover through time) were specifically included in the probabilistic landslide analysis. While natural physical processes such as slope undercutting by rivers and failure of oversteepened slopes are important in this tropical mountainous site, landslides are increasingly associated with human activities. The data show that land cover trajectories are associated with landslide patterns. In this humid mountainous site, forest degradation does not lead to a measurable increase in landslide occurrence. However, few years after forests are converted to pastures, a rapid decline of slope stability is observed. Land cover conversion from forest to pasture permanently reduces slope stability. It is assumed that major changes in soil properties and hydrology induced by the vegetation conversion play a role in accelerating landslide hazards.