The interaction between land use/cover change and landscape pattern is pivotal in research concerning global environmental change. This study uses three different Landsat images of 1989, 1998 and 2009 to study the land use/cover and landscape pattern changes in the middle reaches of the Tarim River basin. envi®, erdas®, ArcGIS® and fragstats® software were used to analyse the land use/cover changes. The objectives of study were to map and study the changes in land use/cover and landscape pattern, and propose some possible factors in making the land use/cover changes from 1989 to 2009.

In this paper a new approach for fractal based dimensionality reduction of hyperspectral data has been proposed. The features have been generated by multiplying variogram fractal dimension value with spectral energy. Fractal dimension bears the information related to the shape or characteristic of the spectral response curves and the spectral energy bears the information related to class separation.

Farmlands represent one of the most important habitats for several bird species in Europe, but during the last few decades, agricultural landscapes have been subject to a rapid and large-scale change, caused by the intensification and mechanization of agricultural activities, that is one of the main drivers of worldwide biodiversity decline.

Woody biomass production is a critical indicator in evaluation of land use management and the dynamics of the global carbon cycle (sequestration/emission) in terrestrial ecosystems. The objective of the present study was to develop, through a case study in Sudan, an operational multiscale remote-sensing-based methodology for large-scale estimation of woody biomass in tropical savannahs. Woody biomass estimation models obtained by different authors from destructive field measurements in different tropical savannah ecosystems were expressed as functions of tree canopy cover (CC).

The European turtle dove is both a highly valued game species and a species of conservation concern, which is declining due probably to a combination of habitat degradation and unsustainable hunting. Although declines seem to be less severe in the Mediterranean region, it remains uncertain the extent to which ongoing land use changes will negatively affect this species. This study examined this issue, by estimating the effects of landscape composition on the broad scale abundance pattern of breeding turtle doves in continental Portugal.

Numerous studies have been conducted that evaluate the utility of remote sensing for monitoring and assessing vegetation and ground cover to support land management decisions and complement ground measurements. However, few comparisons have been made that evaluate the utility of object-based image analysis (OBIA) to accurately classify a landscape where rule sets (models) have been developed at various scales. In this study, OBIA rule sets used to estimate land cover from high–spatial resolution imagery (0.06-m pixel) on Pinus L. (pinyon) and Juniperus L.

We examined macroinvertebrate community data from Missouri reference streams collected approximately 12 years apart to evaluate whether substantial changes in community metrics and/or taxonomic composition occurred over that period. We used analysis of variance to test whether metrics differed between years or between other variables and used non-metric multidimensional scaling to examine compositional differences among samples and the environmental variables that were most associated with these differences.

CONTEXT: Landscape transition drives environmental change across the globe. However, landscape and its change are complex with high spatial heterogeneity, which challenges strategic decision-making. OBJECTIVES: This paper aims to derive management meaningful units based on landscape status and change analysis and the generalization of landscape spatial heterogeneity. METHODS: Based on contrasting cases from Finland (Vanajavesi) and China (Baota District), this paper analyzed the landscape attributes and change since 2000.

An Observing System Simulation Experiment (OSSE) for the Aquarius/SAC-D mission that includes different models for forward and retrieval processes is presented. This OSSE is implemented to study the errors related to the use of simple retrieval models in passive microwave applications. To this end, a theoretical forward model was introduced, which is suitable to reproduce some of the complexities related to canopy vegetation scattering.

Rapid land use/land cover changes have taken place in many cities of Turkey. Land use and land cover changes are essential for wide range of applications. In this study, Landsat TM satellite imageries date from 1987, 1993, 2000 and 2010 were used to analyse temporal and spatial changes in the Western Black Sea Region of Turkey. Zonguldak and Eregli two largest and economic important cities which have been active coal mining and iron fabric areas.

Land use change, natural disturbance, and climate change directly alter ecosystem productivity and carbon stock level. The estimation of ecosystem carbon dynamics depends on the quality of land cover change data and the effectiveness of the ecosystem models that represent the vegetation growth processes and disturbance effects. We used the Integrated Biosphere Simulator (IBIS) and a set of 30- to 60-m resolution fire and land cover change data to examine the carbon changes of California's forests, shrublands, and grasslands.

This study is a contribution to a model intercomparison experiment initiated during a workshop at the 2013 IAHS conference in Göteborg, Sweden. We present discharge simulations with the conceptual precipitation–runoff model COSERO in 11 basins located under different climates in Europe, Africa and Australia. All of the basins exhibit some form of non-stationary conditions, due, for example, to warming, droughts or land-cover change.