Publications

[No abstract available]

Land evaluation factors often contain continuous-, discrete- and nominal-valued attributes. In traditional land evaluation, these different attributes are usually graded into categorical indexes by land resource experts, and the evaluation results rely heavily on experts' experiences. In order to overcome the shortcoming, we presented a fuzzy neural network ensemble method that did not...

Structural analysis of the Lopez Structural Complex, a major Late Cretaceous terrane-bounding fault zone in the San Juan thrust system, reveals a sequence of events that provides insight into accretionary wedge mechanics and regional tectonics. After formation of regional ductile flattening and shear-related fabrics, the area was crosscut by brittle structures including: (1) southwest...

The Landsat archive provides more than 35 years of uninterrupted multispectral remotely sensed data of Earth observations. Since 1972, Landsat missions have carried different types of sensors, from the Return Beam Vidicon (RBV) camera to the Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+). However, the Thematic Mapper (TM) sensors on Landsat 4 (L4) and Landsat 5 (L5), launched in 1982 and 1984...

Floods are the most common and widespread climate-related hazard on Earth. Flood forecasting can reduce the death toll associated with floods. Satellites offer effective and economical means for calculating areal rainfall estimates in sparsely gauged regions. However, satellite-based rainfall estimates have had limited use in flood forecasting and hydrologic stream flow modeling because...

Flux towers provide temporal quantification of local carbon dynamics at specific sites. The number and distribution of flux towers, however, are generally inadequate to quantify carbon fluxes across a landscape or ecoregion. Thus, scaling up of flux tower measurements through use of algorithms developed from remote sensing and GIS data is needed for spatial extrapolation of carbon fluxes...

This chapter describes the background and design of the Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools Prototype Project, or LANDFIRE Prototype Project, which was a sub-regional, proof-of-concept effort designed to develop methods and applications for providing the high-resolution data (30-m pixel) needed to support wildland fire management and to implement the National Fire Plan...

Geospatial data describing wildland fuel and current as well as historical vegetation conditions are essential for planning, implementing, and monitoring projects supported by the National Fire Plan and the Healthy Forests Restoration Act. Scientifically credible, consistent, and standardized spatial data allow fire and land managers to accurately identify the amount and locations of...

The purpose of this chapter is to provide a general overview of the many aspects of accuracy assessment pertinent to the Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools Prototype Project (LANDFIRE Prototype Project). The LANDFIRE Prototype formed a large and complex research and development project with many broad-scale data sets and products developed throughout its various stages...

The Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools Prototype Project, or LANDFIRE Prototype Project, required the mapping of existing vegetation composition (cover type) and structural stages at a 30-m spatial resolution to provide baseline vegetation data for the development of wildland fuel maps and for comparison to simulated historical vegetation reference conditions to...

The transfer of LANDFIRE data to users is the most important aspect of the Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools Project (LANDFIRE Prototype Project). The creation of an accurate, consistent, nationwide data set provides the foundation for a successful project. The final step is to make the data readily available to the user community. User capabilities and needs vary...

Federal Clean Water Act requires that states develop Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) for water bodies. Once the state has developed an inventory of TMDLs, it is required to provide public notice of the report and have it approved by the Environmental Protection Agency. The South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is using the USDA’s annualized Agricultural...