Social and economic considerations are among the most important drivers of landscape change, yet few studies have addressed economic and environmental influences on landscape structure, and how land ownership may affect landscape dynamics. Watersheds in the Olympic Peninsula, Washington, and the southern Appalachian highlands of western North Carolina were studied to address two questions: (1) Does landscape pattern vary among federal, state, and private lands?

Stream water temperature (tₛ) is a critical water quality parameter for aquatic ecosystems. However, tₛrecords are sparse or nonexistent in many river systems. In this work, we present an empirical model to predict tₛat the site scale across the USA. The model, derived using data from 171 reference sites selected from the Geospatial Attributes of Gages for Evaluating Streamflow database, describes the linear relationship between monthly mean air temperature (tₐ) and tₛ.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service curve–number (CN) method commonly uses three discrete levels (1, 2, and 3) of antecedent moisture condition (AMC) to describe soil moisture at the time of a runoff event. However, this may not adequately represent soil water conditions for watershed modeling purposes. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the use of individual–event watershed–scale AMC values to adjust field–scale CN, and to assess which hydrologic parameters would provide the best estimate of individual–event AMC.

- Brook charr (Salvelinus fontinalis) is a sentinel fish species that requires clean, cold water habitats generally resulting from landscapes that allow for surface water flows devoid of sediment and contaminants and high groundwater discharge of cold water. As such, brook charr are impacted by land cover changes that alter stream temperature regimes. We evaluated brook charr populations across their eastern and midwestern range in the United States with reference to thermal habitat availability in relationship to land cover and per cent baseflow.

The angular effects of emissivity are ignored in current land surface temperature (LST) products. As a result, the directionality of these LST products limits their further application in many fields. Accurate correction of the angular problem of LST products requires explicit understanding of the angular effects of emissivity at the pixel scale. Currently, nearly ten years of global emissivity products of MODIS are available. However, the pixel-scale directionality of emissivity has never been analyzed.

Deciduous shrub density and landcover are increasing across many areas of the Arctic. Shrub growth may be promoted by a snow–shrub feedback whereby relatively tall shrubs accumulate deeper snow, raising winter soil temperature minima, increasing microbial activity, and enhancing soil solution nitrogen (N). Although there is good evidence for the above components of the hypothesis, it has not yet been determined if shrubs can access the elevated N pool generated by deepened snow.

Extensive groundwater withdrawals in urban areas may cause water shortages, land subsidence, and water quality problems. The Quetta Valley is the largest population center in Balochistan province in western Pakistan. This area is arid and groundwater is the main water source for domestic and agricultural use. This work presents global positioning system (GPS) data and assessment of spatial and temporal variations in water levels. GPS data from two stations from mid-2006 to the beginning of 2009 show subsidence rate of 10� cm\year.

Efficient management and conservation of natural habitats requires a thorough knowledge and sustained monitoring of their ecological quality. In recent years, several methods have been developed to assess the local conservation status in the field. These typically combine estimates of coarse-scale indicators, such as tree and grass encroachments, with very fine-scale indicators that require precise fieldwork, such as the number of key species present. We first tested whether coarse-scale field characteristics can provide information on fine-scale indicators.

The authors researched changes in specific habitat types in areas considered to be the most important in Croatia for protection of endangered bird fauna during the period 1990–2000. The analysis focused on four areas in the continental part of Croatia (Danube and Drava River alluvium, Pokupsko depression, Sava River basin, Upper Drava River basin) and four areas in the Mediterranean part (Neretva River estuary, NW part of North Dalmatia, Paško field, Lake Vrana). For the classified habitat types, changes in Corine land cover databases in 1990 and 2000 were analysed.

This study established the possibility of rapid evaluation of land cover structure and situation using as an example the Temelin Nuclear Power Plant (Czech Republic) emergency zone. The composition, surface representation and spatial distribution of crop species in the area of interest were assessed on the basis of satellite data analysis (Landsat 5 TM). The supervised classification method of Landsat data yielded 92% accuracy of classification into the land cover classes.

This paper addresses two important issues for large Mediterranean city regions: the differential impact of compact urban ‘growth’ and low-density ‘sprawl’ on land cover changes (LCCs), and their final effect on changing land cover relationships (LCRs). The urban expansion of Rome (Italy) during the last 50 years and the related LCCs were investigated as a paradigmatic example of compact versus dispersed urban development.

Urban and community forests play an important role in the overall carbon budget of the USA. Accurately quantifying carbon sequestration by these forests can provide insight for strategic planning to mitigate greenhouse gas effects on climate change. This study provides a new methodology to estimate net forest carbon sequestration (FCS) in urban and community lands of northern New England using ground based forest growth rates, housing density data, satellite derived land cover and tree canopy cover maps at the county level.