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System analysis of land use and climate effects on ecosystem services affecting C and N exchanges with the atmosphere and water cycles

Current land use practices have affected ecosystem structure and processes in ways that have degraded delivery of key ecosystem services controlling exchanges of carbon and nitrogen with the atmosphere and surface and groundwater systems. These impacts are observed in the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) and N pollution in our nation’s water systems and coastal areas. Improvements in databases
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John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis
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System analysis of land use and climate effects on ecosystem services affecting C and N exchanges with the atmosphere and water cycles

Current land use practices have affected ecosystem structure and processes in ways that have degraded delivery of key ecosystem services controlling exchanges of carbon and nitrogen with the atmosphere and surface and groundwater systems. These impacts are observed in the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) and N pollution in our nation’s water systems and coastal areas. Improvements in databases
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A circa 2010 global land cover reference dataset from commercial high resolution satellite data

The data are 475 thematic land cover raster?s at 2m resolution. Land cover classification was to the land cover classes: Tree (1), Water (2), Barren (3), Other Vegetation (4) and Ice & Snow (8). Cloud cover and Shadow were sometimes coded as Cloud (5) and Shadow (6), however for any land cover application would be considered NoData. Some raster?s may have Cloud and Shadow pixels coded or recod
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Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center

LCMAP CONUS Reference Data Product 1984-2018 land cover, land use and change process attributes

The LCMAP Reference Data Product was utilized for evaluation and validation of the Land Change Monitoring, Assessment, and Projection (LCMAP) land cover and land cover change products. The LCMAP Reference Data Product includes the collection of an independent dataset of 25,000 randomly-distributed 30-meter by 30-meter plots across the conterminous United States (CONUS). This dataset was collected
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Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center
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Fifty years of Landsat science and impacts

Since 1972, the Landsat program has been continually monitoring the Earth, to now provide 50 years of digital, multispectral, medium spatial resolution observations. Over this time, Landsat data were crucial for many scientific and technical advances. Prior to the Landsat program, detailed, synoptic depictions of the Earth's surface were rare, and the ability to acquire and work with large dataset
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Earth Resources Observation and Science Center, Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center

Conterminous United States land-cover change (1985-2016): New insights from annual time series

Sample-based estimates augmented by complete coverage land-cover maps were used to estimate area and describe patterns of annual land-cover change across the conterminous United States (CONUS) between 1985 and 2016. Most of the CONUS land cover remained stable in terms of net class change over this time, but a substantial gross change dynamic was captured by the annual and cumulative time interval
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Core Science Systems, Earth Resources Observation and Science Center, Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center

Climate sensitivity to decadal land cover and land use change across the conterminous United States

Transitions to terrestrial ecosystems attributable to land cover and land use change (LCLUC) and climate change can affect the climate at local to regional scales. However, conclusions from most previous studies do not provide information about local climate effects, and little research has directly quantified how LCLUC intensity within different ecoregions relates to climate variation. In this st
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Earth Resources Observation and Science Center, Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center

Investigating the effects of land use and land cover on the relationship between moisture and reflectance using Landsat Time Series

To better understand the Earth system, it is important to investigate the interactions between precipitation, land use/land cover (LULC), and the land surface, especially vegetation. An improved understanding of these land-atmosphere interactions can aid understanding of the climate system and modeling of time series satellite data. Here, we investigate the effect of precipitation and LULC on the
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Earth Resources Observation and Science Center, Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center

Application of a regional climate model to assess changes in the climatology of the Eastern US and Cuba associated with historic landcover change

We examine the annual, seasonal, monthly, and diurnal climate responses to the land use change (LUC) in eastern United States and Cuba during four epochs (1650, 1850, 1920, and 1992) with ensemble simulations conducted with the RegCM4 regional climate model that includes the Biosphere Atmosphere Transfer Scheme (BATS1e) surface physics package (Dickinson et al., 1993). We derived the land use (LU)
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Ecosystems, Cooperative Research Units, Earth Resources Observation and Science Center, Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center , Florence Bascom Geoscience Center, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center, Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center

U.S. Geological Survey Climate and Land Use Change Science Strategy—A Framework for Understanding and Responding to Global Change

Executive SummaryThe U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), a nonregulatory Federal science agency with national scope and responsibilities, is uniquely positioned to serve the Nation’s needs in understanding and responding to global change, including changes in climate, water availability, sea level, land use and land cover, ecosystems, and global biogeochemical cycles. Global change is among the most ch
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Earth Resources Observation and Science Center, Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center

Lessons learned implementing an operational continuous U.S. national land change monitoring capability: The LCMAP approach

Growing demands for temporally specific information on land surface change are fueling a new generation of maps and statistics that can contribute to understanding geographic and temporal patterns of change across large regions, provide input into a wide range of environmental modeling studies, clarify the drivers of change, and provide more timely information for land managers. To meet these need
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Earth Resources Observation and Science Center, Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center

Quality control and assessment of interpreter consistency of annual land cover reference data in an operational national monitoring program

The U.S. Geological Survey Land Change Monitoring, Assessment and Projection (USGS LCMAP) initiative is working toward a comprehensive capability to characterize land cover and land cover change using dense Landsat time series data. A suite of products including annual land cover maps and annual land cover change maps will be produced using the Landsat 4-8 data record. LCMAP products will initiall
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Earth Resources Observation and Science Center, Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center

Land cover and land use change

Climate can affect and be affected by changes in land cover (the physical features that cover the land such as trees or pavement) and land use (human management and activities on land, such as mining or recreation). A forest, for instance, would likely include tree cover but could also include areas of recent tree removals currently covered by open grass areas. Land cover and use are inherently co

Drought and land-cover conditions in the Great Plains

Land–atmosphere interactions play a critical role in the Earth system, and a better understanding of these interactions could improve weather and climate models. The interaction among drought, vegetation productivity, and land cover is of particular significance. In a semiarid environment, such as the U.S. Great Plains, droughts can have a large influence on the productivity of agriculture and gra
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Earth Resources Observation and Science Center, Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center

Effects of contemporary land-use and land-cover change on the carbon balance of terrestrial ecosystems in the United States

Changes in land use and land cover (LULC) can have profound effects on terrestrial carbon dynamics, yet their effects on the global carbon budget remain uncertain. While land change impacts on ecosystem carbon dynamics have been the focus of numerous studies, few efforts have been based on observational data incorporating multiple ecosystem types spanning large geographic areas over long time hori
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Ecosystems, Earth Resources Observation and Science Center, Climate Adaptation Science Centers, National Land Imaging Program, Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center , Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center, Western Geographic Science Center

2017 Landsat Science Team Summer Meeting Summary

The summer meeting of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)-NASA Landsat Science Team (LST) was held June 11-13, 2017, at the USGS’s Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center near Sioux Falls, SD. This was the final meeting of the Second (2012-2017) LST.1 Frank Kelly [EROS—Center Director] welcomed the attendees and expressed his thanks to the LST members for their contributions. He then i
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Earth Resources Observation and Science Center, Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center
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Pecora 22 Call for Special Session Proposals

The 22nd William T. Pecora Memorial Remote Sensing Symposium (Pecora 22) will be held October 23 – 28, 2022 in Denver, Colorado, USA.

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USGS and NASA Select New Landsat Science Team

The USGS and NASA have selected the scientists and engineers who will serve on the next Landsat Science Team. 

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Image: Prairie Restoration
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