The identification of land cover changes on a continental scale is a laborious and time-consuming process. A new methodology is proposed based exclusively on SPOT VGT data, illustrated for the African Continent using GLC2000 as reference to select 26 distinct land cover types (classes).

Land cover is one of the most changeable environment components in time and space. The type, intensity and spatial distribution of land use forms result directly from the actual and former character of agriculture. In this study, an attempt was made to assess the impact of loess relief on the spatial diversity of land use patch features. The research was carried out within three test areas covering a total of about 100km². The test areas are located within the loess areas of SE Poland. Spatial analyses were carried out using GIS software.

This paper examines the size and intensity of changes among five land categories during the two time intervals in a region of Indonesia that is pioneering negotiations concerning reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD). Maps at 1973, 1993, and 2005 indicate that land-cover change is accelerating, while carbon loss is decelerating in Jambi Province, Sumatra. Land dynamics have shifted from Forest loss during 1973–1993 to Agroforest loss during 1993–2005.

PURPOSE: Soil particle-size distribution (PSD) is an important soil physical property. Single- and multi-fractal models are increasingly used to characterize soil properties and may provide additional information. The Yellow River Delta is one of the best representative examples of river ecosystem wetlands in the world. In this area, different land resource development patterns strongly influence soil structure and fertility.

Agronomic intensification has transformed many agricultural landscapes into expansive monocultures with little natural habitat. A pervasive concern is that such landscape simplification results in an increase in insect pest pressure, and thus an increased need for insecticides. We tested this hypothesis across a range of cropping systems in the Midwestern United States, using remotely sensed land cover data, data from a national census of farm management practices, and data from a regional crop pest monitoring network.

North Korea used to have abundant forest stocks but underwent substantial deforestation and degradation of forest in recent decades. This study examined morphological changes of forest cover in North Korea between the 1980s and 2000s. Land cover data based on Landsat TM imagery were obtained as images from the Republic of Korea’s Ministry of Environment. The images were processed and used for the morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA) and network analysis. MSPA classified the forest cover into morphological classes such as core, islet, bridge, perforation, edge, loop, and branch.

Conducting quantitative studies on the carbon balance or productivity of oil palm is important in understanding the role of this ecosystem in global climate change. In this study, we evaluated the accuracy of MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) annual gross primary productivity (GPP) (the product termed MOD-17) and its upstream products, especially the MODIS land cover product (the product termed MOD-12). We used high-resolution Google Earth images to classify the land cover classes and their percentage cover within each 1 km spatial resolution MODIS pixel.

This article presents a raster-based Geographic Information Systems (GIS) tool called CN-Idris that outputs runoff estimates from land use/land cover and hydrologic soil group maps based on the Natural Resources Conservation Service Curve Number method. The tool enables the user to select among three antecedent moisture conditions and two values of the initial abstraction (Iₐ) parameter, and it has the option to include spatial variation in rainfall input.

In recent years, much attention has been given to desertification in Xinjiang, China, particularly in the southern edge of the Taklimakan Desert. In this study, an oasis in Minfeng County, which is located in the southern edges of the Taklimakan Desert, was chosen as our case study area. Supervised classification for land types was conducted, and then the change detection and the trend of changes in sandy land areas were analyzed and compared. The results show that the area of sandy land has decreased in the region in the period of 1992-2001.

BACKGROUND: Larval source management strategies can play an important role in malaria elimination programmes, especially for tackling outdoor biting species and for eliminating parasite and vector populations when they are most vulnerable during the dry season. Effective larval source management requires tools for identifying geographic foci of vector proliferation and malaria transmission where these efforts may be concentrated.

A distributed adaptation of i-Tree Eco was used to simulate dry deposition in an urban area. This investigation focused on the effects of varying temperature, LAI, and NO₂ concentration inputs on estimated NO₂ dry deposition to trees in Baltimore, MD. A coupled modeling system is described, wherein WRF provided temperature and LAI fields, and CMAQ provided NO₂ concentrations. A base case simulation was conducted using built-in distributed i-Tree Eco tools, and simulations using different inputs were compared against this base case.

Many ecosystems are influenced by disturbances that create specific successional states and habitat structures that species need to persist. Estimating transition probabilities between habitat states and modeling the factors that influence such transitions have many applications for investigating and managing disturbance‐prone ecosystems. We identify the correspondence between multistate capture–recapture models and Markov models of habitat dynamics.