The urbanization of watersheds is a highly dynamic global phenomenon that must be monitored. With consequences for the environment, the population, and the economy, accurate products at adequate spatial and temporal resolutions are required and demanded by the science community and stakeholders alike. To address these needs, a new Impervious Surface Area (ISA) product was created for a Portuguese Watershed (Mondego river) from Landsat data (a combination of leaf-on multispectral bands, derived products, and NDVI time series), using Regression Tree Models (RTM).

Aquarius satellite observations over land offer a new resource for measuring soil moisture from space. Although Aquarius was designed for ocean salinity mapping, our objective in this investigation is to exploit the large amount of land observations that Aquarius acquires and extend the mission scope to include the retrieval of surface soil moisture. The soil moisture retrieval algorithm development focused on using only the radiometer data because of the extensive heritage of passive microwave retrieval of soil moisture.

Total phosphorus (TP) concentrations are known to be a significant factor influencing fish populations in Minnesota lakes. Consequently, a primary focus of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to address fish habitat in lakes across the state has been to determine relationships between TP concentrations and watershed conditions in Minnesota lakes. Because phosphorus concentrations in Minnesota lakes vary widely corresponding to differences in geomorphology, nutrient criteria were established by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency for specific ecoregions.

The country of Spain is representative of land change processes in Mediterranean member states of the European Union (EU). These land change processes are often triggered by European, national and sub-national policies and include widespread land abandonment and urbanisation trends, as well as an increase in land use intensities accompanied by strong exploitation of water resources. The Mediterranean is part of the dryland ecoregion, which is particularly vulnerable to ecosystem degradation.

Quantification of landscape pattern is of primary interest in landscape ecological studies. For quantification purposes, a large number of landscape metrics have been developed, with definitions based on measurable patch attributes. Calculation of these metrics is commonly conducted on wall-to-wall maps, whereas a new interest is to use sample data. It is argued that a sample survey takes less time and results are more reliable. The overall objective in this paper was to present the potential of the line interest sampling method for estimating a special contagion metric.

A large wetland drainage project was initiated in 1912 near the town of Seney, Michigan, U.S.A. This project included the construction of a series of ditches through a large peatland to drain the land for agricultural use. The largest of these ditches was the 35 km long Walsh Ditch. Much of the drained wetland affected by the Walsh Ditch is now managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as part of Seney National Wildlife Refuge.

CONTEXT: Weather surveillance radars (WSR) have been used to locate roost sites used by Purple Martins (Progne subis) for decades. Improvements in radar data processing and accessibility now make it possible to monitor roosts over a broad spatial scale. OBJECTIVES: We sought to locate all of the Purple Martin roosts in North America and to use the data to evaluate (1) the land cover types associated with roosts (2) relationships among roost persistence, land cover type, and regional population trends.

Given historical patterns of decline, the American Black Duck (Anas rubripes) has long been a species of concern. To support the identification of core Maritime habitat, the distribution of breeding ducks was mapped at the landscape scale through the combination of GIS-based land cover information and five years of intensive aerial surveys (2006–2010). A predictive, mixed effects model was used to generate the maps, based on the weighted average of coefficients for the top 95% of all-possible models (as measured by AIC weights).

CONTEXT: The urban heat island (UHI) is a well-documented pattern of warming in cities relative to rural areas. Most UHI research utilizes remote sensing methods at large scales, or climate sensors in single cities surrounded by standardized land cover. Relatively few studies have explored continental-scale climatic patterns within common urban microenvironments such as residential landscapes that may affect human comfort.

Vegetation data in an early 20th century map from northern Tanzania are presented and discussed for its potential of expanding the analytical time-frame in studies of land-use and land-cover change. The starting point is that much research on land-use and land-cover change suffers from a time-frame bias, caused by limitations in remote sensing data. At the same time, the use of historical maps as a complementary data-set is rather insignificant. Can information in historical maps be used to extend the baseline in land-use and land-cover change studies?

Despite legislation and voluntary initiatives aimed at protecting the environment, previously undeveloped areas of Costa Rica are subject to new development opportunities. This growth has been largely unchecked, and has led to enormous amounts of foreign direct investment. This unchecked investment has led to destabilization of the natural environment, and, in the case of the Dominical–Uvita corridor on the Pacific Coast, has led to an observed increase in landsliding activity.