Landscape networks and ecosystems worldwide are undergoing changes that may impact in different ways relevant ecological processes such as gene flow, pollination, or wildlife dispersal. A myriad of indices have been developed to characterize landscape patterns, but not all of them are equally suited to evaluate temporal changes in landscape connectivity as is increasingly needed for biodiversity monitoring and operational indicator delivery.

Intense anthropogenic exploitation has altered distribution of forest resources. This change was analyzed using visual interpretation of satellite data of 1979, 1999 and 2009. Field and interactive social surveys were conducted to identify spatial trends in forest degradation and data were mapped on forest cover and land use maps. Perceptions of villagers were compiled in a pictorial representation to understand changes in forest resource distribution in central Himalaya from 1970 to 2010. Forested areas were subject to degradation and isolation due to loss of connecting forest stands.

Timber harvest often results in accelerated soil erosion and subsequent elevated fine (

The distribution of subterranean copepods may reflect the persistence of cave assemblages in relation to the environmental health of the overlying landscape. Areas supporting groundwater fauna were established by modelling the persistence of seven copepod species using a geographical information system (GIS). Environmental drivers were found to influence subterranean copepod distribution in the caves of the Romanian Carpathians.

We investigated the relative importance of stand and landscape characteristics in the invasion of a nonnative shrub, Amur honeysuckle, in 40 woodlots in an agricultural matrix in southwest Ohio. We quantified stand characteristics that could influence invasibility, the intrinsic susceptibility of an area to invasion, including woodlot size, perimeter-to-area ratio, tree basal area, and stand age.

Global climate models (GCM) investigating the effects of land cover on climate have found that replacing extra-tropical forest with cropland promotes cooling. We compared cropland and forest surface temperatures across the continental United States in 16 cells that were approximately 1°×2° using 1km² MODIS land surface temperature (LST) data and land cover from the 0.0009km² National Land Cover Database (NLCD). We found that forest surface temperatures tended to be cooler than cropland surface temperatures. This relationship held for spring, summer, fall, and annually.

The Qurayyah Sabkha is located on the western coast of the Arabian Gulf in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. The current study aims to determine the number of land cover endmembers that can be detected and mapped using Landsat 7 ETM + and ASTER. Furthermore, the study also aims to determine the spatial distribution of fractional abundances of these endmembers. Clastic sediments, calcite dominate sediments, gypsum, vegetation, water, and quartz sand were identified at the surface the Qurayyah Sabkha using Minimum Noise fraction (MNF), Pixel Purity Index (PPI), and n-D Visualization.

Understanding the growth and changes in urban environments are the most dynamic system on the earth’s surface is critical for urban planning and sustainable management. This study attempts to present a space-borne satellite-based approach to demonstrate the urban change and its relation with land surface temperature (LST) variation in urban areas of Klang valley, Malaysia. For this purpose an object-based nearest neighbour classifier (S-NN) approach was first applied on SPOT 5 data acquired on 2003 and 2010 and subsequently five land cover categories were extracted.

This study combined uncertainty analysis of carbon emissions with local stakeholders' perspectives to develop an effective Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) scheme at the district level. Uncertainty of carbon emission estimates depends on scale while local stakeholders' views on plausible REDD+ schemes influence and limit transaction costs. The uncertainty analysis formed the basis for determining an appropriate scale for monitoring carbon emission estimates as performance measures for REDD+ incentives.

Water consumed through evapotranspiration (ET) impacts local and regional hydrologic regimes on various spatial and temporal scales. Estimating ET in the Great Plains is a prerequisite for effective regional water resource management of the Ogallala (High Plains) Aquifer, which supplies vital water resources in the form of irrigation for extensive agricultural production.

In the present study, Remote Sensing Technique and GIS tools were used to prepare landslide susceptibility map of Shiv-khola watershed, one of the landslide prone part of Darjiling Himalaya, based on 9 landslide inducing parameters like lithology, slope gradient, slope aspect, slope curvature, drainage density, upslope contributing area, land use and land cover, road contributing area and settlement density applying Analytical Hierarchy Approach (AHA). In this approach, quantification of the factors was executed on priority basis by pair-wise comparison of the factors.

Area-based information obtained from remote sensing and aerial photography is often used in studies on ecological footprint and sustainability, especially in calculating biocapacity. Given the importance of the modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP; i.e. the scale dependency of area-based information), a comprehensive understanding of how the changes of biocapacity across scales (i.e. the resolution of data) is pivotal for regional sustainable development.