In Indonesia, vegetation fires occur every year in the dry season. To determine where and why fires occur, the natural and cultural landscape features that influence the location of fires were analysed. We investigated the probability of fire occurrence as a function of predisposing conditions and ignition sources, such as land use, land use zoning, accessibility or land cover, to understand the spatial determinants of fires. The study area is the entire province of Jambi, central Sumatra, Indonesia.

Most existing multi-temporal classification studies use spectral information alone and ignore the temporal correlation between two-date images. This article proposes a new method to characterize the local temporal correlation using multi-temporal texture measured with a geostatistical function called the pseudo cross variogram (PCV). The derived multi-temporal texture, as an additional band, was combined with the spectral information in multi-temporal classification.

This study provides a framework for the joint analysis of long-term land cover changes and climatic variations at regional scale. The land cover distribution observed in Italy in 1960, 1990, and 2006 was compared with trends in annual precipitation and the aridity index estimated during 1951–2007. Annual rainfall decreased by 0.41% per year during the examined period with the consequent increase in the aridity index (0.48% per year). Both rainfall decrease and aridity increase followed a non-uniform spatial distribution impacting differently the Mediterranean landscape mosaic.

The effects of land management and disturbance on ecosystem performance (i.e. biomass production) are often confounded by those of weather and site potential. The current study overcomes this issue by calculating the difference between actual and expected ecosystem performance (EEP) to generate ecosystem performance anomalies (EPA). This study aims to delineate and quantify average EPA from 2000–2009 within the Greater Platte and Upper Colorado River Basins, USA.

The methane exchange in an oligotrophic mire complex was measured on the ecosystem and microform scale with the eddy covariance (EC) and the closed chamber technique, respectively. Information about the distribution of three distinct microform types in the area of interest and in each 30min EC flux source area was derived from a high-resolution (1m²) landcover map in combination with an analytical source weight model (Kormann and Meixner, 2001).

Recently, localized heavy rainfall over highly urbanized areas has caused severe damage in Japan. Although studies have indicated that the presence of urban areas can intensify rainfall, the chaotic noise caused by differences in initial conditions can change the urban effect. Therefore, the usability of ensemble simulation methods for urban effects on a single localized heavy rainfall event must be clarified to synthesize state-of-the-art observations and numerical model studies. This study examined the difference in a localized heavy rainfall event under different initial conditions.

Human drivers are often proposed to be stronger than biophysical drivers in influencing ecosystem structure and function in highly urbanized areas. In residential land cover, private yards are influenced by individual homeowner preferences and actions while also experiencing large-scale human and biophysical drivers. We studied plant nitrogen (%N) and N stable isotopic composition (δ¹⁵N) in residential yards and paired native ecosystems in seven cities across the US that span major ecological biomes and climatic regions: Baltimore, Boston, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis-St.

Energy fluxes, including net radiation, latent heat flux and sensible heat flux were determined on clear days during the vegetative period in four types of land cover: wet meadow, pasture, arable field, and an artificial concrete surface. The average net radiation ranged between 123� W� m⁻² at the concrete surface and 164� W� m⁻² at the wet meadow. The mean maximum daytime latent heat ranged between 500 and 600� W� m⁻², which corresponds to an evapotranspiration rate of about 0.2� g� m⁻²� s⁻¹ under the prevailing conditions of the wet meadow.

A dynamic fugacity model was developed to simulate the spatial and seasonal variations of PAHs in Haihe Plain, China. The calculated and measured concentrations exhibited good consistency in magnitude with deviations within a factor of 4 in air and 2 in soil. The spatial distributions of PAHs in air were mainly controlled by emission while the seasonal variations were dominated by emission and gas–particle partition. In soil, the spatial distributions of PAHs were controlled by the soil organic carbon content while the seasonal variations were insignificant.

Land managers must set weed management priorities if limited resources are to be utilized effectively. Weed surveys and inventories assist land managers in this process by providing information regarding the identity, location, and relative abundance of weeds on their land. Although this information is vital, it can be challenging to select a method that provides the necessary data to meet management objectives while remaining accurate and cost effective. This paper critically evaluates four wildland weed mapping methods.

Hood Canal, Washington, USA, is a poorly ventilated fjord-like sub-basin of Puget Sound that commonly experiences hypoxia. This study examined the influence of watershed soils, vegetation, physical features, and population density on nitrogen (N) export to Hood Canal from 43 tributaries. We also linked our watershed study to the estuary using a salinity mass balance model that calculated the relative magnitude of N loading to Hood Canal from watershed, direct precipitation, and marine sources.

The landscape-level and multiscale biodiversity monitoring program National Inventory of Landscapes in Sweden (NILS) was launched in 2003. NILS is conducted as a sample-based stratified inventory that acquires data across several spatial scales, which is accomplished by combining aerial photo interpretation with field inventory. A total of 631 sample units are distributed across the land base of Sweden, of which 20% are surveyed each year. By 2007 NILS completed the first 5-year inventory phase.