Patterns in the Landscape – Analyses of Cause and Effect Active
How is land changing in the United States?
Why is land changing in the United States?
Understanding the rates and causes of land-use/land-cover (LULC) change helps answer questions about what, where, how, and why the Earth’s surface is changing. Land-surface change results from human activities or natural processes like floods, droughts, and wildfires, and many of these change processes are observable in satellite imagery. The growing historical catalog of satellite images allows scientists to study past LULC changes to better understand where and why changes occur and how human and natural systems respond to them.
The mission of the PLACE (Patterns in the Landscape – Analyses of Cause and Effect) project is to inform land managers, planners, and researchers about historical and current changes to human and natural environments. PLACE focuses on floods, droughts, and fires, which are increasing in severity, extent, and frequency around the globe. Our work is based on the idea that understanding what drives these disturbance events is a necessary step for identifying management practices that can mitigate the negative human and ecological impacts.
Causes of Disturbance and Recovery
PLACE explores how climate, human activities, abiotic characteristics, and past disturbances interact to shape the regional variability and magnitude of landscape change. Quantifying the underlying factors that contribute to these sorts of processes helps us understand why landscape changes occur. In the next few years, we will primarily focus on the influence of climatic drivers on select disturbance (flood, drought, and fire) and recovery processes. We are actively working with academic partners on developing robust geostatistical linkages between climate and water, wetland, and fire change patterns.
Impacts of Disturbance
PLACE is involved in investigations related to the ecological and socioeconomic impacts of landscape disturbances and subsequent recovery processes in the United States. The goal is to provide information to stakeholders for enhancing hazard preparedness, quantifying ecological effects, and anticipating the LULC composition of future landscapes.
Two current areas of concentration comprise this objective:
- The investigation of the socioeconomic risks associated with flooding in agricultural areas
- The investigation of wildfire impact on future burn severity potential, smoke emissions, and the character of vegetative recovery
- By looking at how fire intensity varies according to land cover type and number of previous burns, we aim to identify locations where land cover composition is at risk of changing, apply regional recovery signals to identify resiliency across the study area, and shed light on what degree of disturbance leads to different recovery pathways.
Below are data or web applications associated with this project.
Below are multimedia items associated with this project.
Using Google Earth Engine to Generate Monthly-to-Weekly Maps of Surface Water
Our topic will be "Using Google Earth Engine to Generate Monthly-to-Weekly Maps of Surface Water." The presenter will be Chris Soulard with the USGS Western Geographic Science Center.
Below are publications associated with this project.
How misapplication of the hydrologic unit framework diminishes the meaning of watersheds
Projecting community changes in hazard exposure to support long-term risk reduction: A case study of tsunami hazards in the U.S. Pacific Northwest
Harmonization of forest disturbance datasets of the conterminous USA from 1986 to 2011
Influence of atmospheric rivers on vegetation productivity and fire patterns in the southwestern U.S.
Mapping extent and change in surface mines within the United States for 2001 to 2006
Below are partners associated with this project.
- Overview
Understanding the rates and causes of land-use/land-cover (LULC) change helps answer questions about what, where, how, and why the Earth’s surface is changing. Land-surface change results from human activities or natural processes like floods, droughts, and wildfires, and many of these change processes are observable in satellite imagery. The growing historical catalog of satellite images allows scientists to study past LULC changes to better understand where and why changes occur and how human and natural systems respond to them.
The mission of the PLACE (Patterns in the Landscape – Analyses of Cause and Effect) project is to inform land managers, planners, and researchers about historical and current changes to human and natural environments. PLACE focuses on floods, droughts, and fires, which are increasing in severity, extent, and frequency around the globe. Our work is based on the idea that understanding what drives these disturbance events is a necessary step for identifying management practices that can mitigate the negative human and ecological impacts.
Causes of Disturbance and Recovery
PLACE explores how climate, human activities, abiotic characteristics, and past disturbances interact to shape the regional variability and magnitude of landscape change. Quantifying the underlying factors that contribute to these sorts of processes helps us understand why landscape changes occur. In the next few years, we will primarily focus on the influence of climatic drivers on select disturbance (flood, drought, and fire) and recovery processes. We are actively working with academic partners on developing robust geostatistical linkages between climate and water, wetland, and fire change patterns.
Impacts of Disturbance
PLACE is involved in investigations related to the ecological and socioeconomic impacts of landscape disturbances and subsequent recovery processes in the United States. The goal is to provide information to stakeholders for enhancing hazard preparedness, quantifying ecological effects, and anticipating the LULC composition of future landscapes.
Two current areas of concentration comprise this objective:
- The investigation of the socioeconomic risks associated with flooding in agricultural areas
- The investigation of wildfire impact on future burn severity potential, smoke emissions, and the character of vegetative recovery
- By looking at how fire intensity varies according to land cover type and number of previous burns, we aim to identify locations where land cover composition is at risk of changing, apply regional recovery signals to identify resiliency across the study area, and shed light on what degree of disturbance leads to different recovery pathways.
- Data
Below are data or web applications associated with this project.
- Multimedia
Below are multimedia items associated with this project.
Using Google Earth Engine to Generate Monthly-to-Weekly Maps of Surface Water
Our topic will be "Using Google Earth Engine to Generate Monthly-to-Weekly Maps of Surface Water." The presenter will be Chris Soulard with the USGS Western Geographic Science Center.
- Publications
Below are publications associated with this project.
Filter Total Items: 17How misapplication of the hydrologic unit framework diminishes the meaning of watersheds
Hydrologic units provide a convenient but problematic nationwide set of geographic polygons based on subjectively determined subdivisions of land surface areas at several hierarchical levels. The problem is that it is impossible to map watersheds, basins, or catchments of relatively equal size and cover the whole country. The hydrologic unit framework is in fact composed mostly of watersheds and pAuthorsJames M. Omernik, Glenn E. Griffith, Robert M. Hughes, James B. Glover, Marc H. WeberProjecting community changes in hazard exposure to support long-term risk reduction: A case study of tsunami hazards in the U.S. Pacific Northwest
Tsunamis have the potential to cause considerable damage to communities along the U.S. Pacific Northwest coastline. As coastal communities expand over time, the potential societal impact of tsunami inundation changes. To understand how community exposure to tsunami hazards may change in coming decades, we projected future development (i.e. urban, residential, and rural), households, and residentsAuthorsBenjamin M. Sleeter, Nathan J. Wood, Christopher E. Soulard, Tamara S. WilsonHarmonization of forest disturbance datasets of the conterminous USA from 1986 to 2011
Several spatial forest disturbance datasets exist for the conterminous USA. The major problem with forest disturbance mapping is that variability between map products leads to uncertainty regarding the actual rate of disturbance. In this article, harmonized maps were produced from multiple data sources (i.e., Global Forest Change, LANDFIRE Vegetation Disturbance, National Land Cover Database, VegeAuthorsChristopher E. Soulard, William Acevedo, Warren B. Cohen, Zhiqiang Yang, Stephen V. Stehman, Janis L. TaylorInfluence of atmospheric rivers on vegetation productivity and fire patterns in the southwestern U.S.
In the southwestern U.S., the meteorological phenomenon known as atmospheric rivers (ARs) has gained increasing attention due to its strong connections to floods, snowpacks, and water supplies in the West Coast states. Relatively less is known about the ecological implications of ARs, particularly in the interior Southwest, where AR storms are less common. To address this gap, we compared a chronoAuthorsChristine M. Albano, Michael D. Dettinger, Christopher E. SoulardMapping extent and change in surface mines within the United States for 2001 to 2006
A complete, spatially explicit dataset illustrating the 21st century mining footprint for the conterminous United States does not exist. To address this need, we developed a semi-automated procedure to map the country's mining footprint (30-m pixel) and establish a baseline to monitor changes in mine extent over time. The process uses mine seed points derived from the U.S. Energy Information AdminAuthorsChristopher E. Soulard, William Acevedo, Stephen V. Stehman, Owen P. Parker - News
- Partners
Below are partners associated with this project.