Publications

Land use change is critical in determining the distribution, magnitude and mechanisms of terrestrial carbon budgets at the local to global scales. To date, almost all regional to global carbon cycle studies are driven by a static land use map or land use change statistics with decadal time intervals. The biases in quantifying carbon exchange between the terrestrial ecosystems and the...

Regional land-use models must address several foundational elements, including understanding geographic setting, establishing regional land-use histories, modeling process and representing drivers of change, representing local land-use patterns, managing issues of scale and complexity, and development of scenarios. Key difficulties include managing an array of biophysical and...

Monitoring forest disturbance is important for studying carbon pools and fluxes. The goal of this study is to observe forest disturbance of different burn severity levels using multi-temporal Landsat images. The Jasper Fire occurred in the Black Hills National Forest, South Dakota, during August and September of 2000. The fire disturbance to ecosystem characteristics has a widespread and...

Measurements of the horizontal and vertical structure of vegetation are helpful for detecting and monitoring change or disturbance on the landscape. Lidar has a unique ability to capture the three-dimensional structure of vegetation canopies. In this preliminary study, we present the results of a series of exploratory data analyses that tested our assumptions about the links between the...

Background aim and scope Soil organic carbon (SOC) accumulation is strongly affected by soil erosion and deposition that differ at slope positions of a watershed. However, studies on the effects of topography on soil aggregation and SOC dynamics, especially after the implementation of vegetation restoration, are rare. Poorly understood mechanisms and a lack of quantification for the...

Forest dynamics is highly relevant to a broad range of earth science studies, many of which have geographic coverage ranging from regional to global scales. While the temporally dense Landsat acquisitions available in many regions provide a unique opportunity for understanding forest disturbance history dating back to 1972, large quantities of Landsat images will need to be analysed for...

Short-term radiometric stability was evaluated using continuous ETM+ scenes within a single orbit (contact period) and the corresponding MODIS scenes for the four matching solar reflective visible and near-infrared (VNIR) band pairs between the two sensors. The near-simultaneous earth observations were limited by the smaller swath size of ETM+ (183 km) compared to MODIS (2330 km). Two...

The National Elevation Dataset (NED) is the primary elevation data product produced and distributed by the USGS. The NED provides seamless raster elevation data of the conterminous United States, Alaska, Hawaii, and the island territories. The NED is derived from diverse source data sets that are processed to a specification with a consistent resolution, coordinate system, elevation...

This issue showcases some good work from Chinese authors who attended the International Workshop of Earth Observation and Remote Sensing Applications (EORSA), held in Beijing, China, June 30-July 2, 2008. The five articles in this issue focus on remote sensing of regional land use and land cover.

The Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET) provides monitoring and early warning support to decision makers responsible for responding to famine and food insecurity. FEWS NET transforms satellite remote sensing data into rainfall and vegetation information that can be used by these decision makers. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has recently funded activities...

Nebraska is now the second-largest producer of corn ethanol in the U.S. This is largely because of the state’s comparative advantages. For one, the state’s water resources enable a huge capacity for irrigation – Nebraska ranks second in irrigated crop acres, behind California. Nebraska is the third-largest corn producer in the U.S., with 75 percent of the crop irrigated. The state also...

Land cover and land use changes can have a wide variety of ecological effects, including significant impacts on soils and water quality. In rural areas, even subtle changes in farming practices can affect landscape features and functions, and consequently the environment. Fine-scale analyses have to be performed to better understand the land cover change processes. At the same time...