We model the occurrence of European wild rabbit in fragmented environments in a mountainous area of northwestern Spain (Gerês–Xurés Biosphere Reserve). We carried out a field survey by sampling the presence/absence of pellets in 237 plots (100 × 100� m) selected at random below an altitude of 800� m. For modelling purposes, we considered eight predictors related to vegetation, topography, human influence and heterogeneity.

Surface and groundwater quantity and quality data are essential in many hydrologic applications and to the development of hydrologic and water quality simulation models. We describe the hydrologic data available in the Little Washita River Experimental Watershed (LWREW) of the Southern Great Plains Research Watershed (SGPRW) and Fort Cobb Reservoir Experimental Watershed (FCREW), both located in southwest Oklahoma.

Estimates of changes and possible causes of regional soil organic carbon (SOC) are critical for evaluation of potential responses of terrestrial biosphere to global changes. A total of 382 soil samples, collected in the 1980s from four counties in the Corn Belt of northeastern China, and of 1,514 samples collected in 2005 from the same area, were examined for SOC concentrations. Spatial and temporal SOC concentrations were evaluated after the 25-year interval using geostatistics and kriging interpolation method.

In pace with rapid urbanization, urban areas in many countries are undergoing huge changes. The large spectral variance and spatial heterogeneity within the ‘buildings’ land cover class, as well as the similar spectral properties between buildings and other urban structures, make building change detection a challenging problem. In this work, we propose a set of novel building change indices (BCIs) by combining morphological building index (MBI) and slow feature analysis (SFA) for building change detection from high-resolution imagery.

Texture provides spatial features complementary to spectral information in land cover classification of high spatial resolution imagery. In texture classification, window size is an important factor influencing classification accuracy, but selecting the optimal window size is difficult. In this paper, we propose an optimized window size texture classification method which can solve the window size selection problem.

Deciduous shrub density and landcover are increasing across many areas of the Arctic. Shrub growth may be promoted by a snow–shrub feedback whereby relatively tall shrubs accumulate deeper snow, raising winter soil temperature minima, increasing microbial activity, and enhancing soil solution nitrogen (N). Although there is good evidence for the above components of the hypothesis, it has not yet been determined if shrubs can access the elevated N pool generated by deepened snow.

There are many factors controlling groundwater pollution and vulnerability. However, the factors’ weights are still not reasonably investigated. In order to assess groundwater quality and the controlling factors in semiarid region, 178 groundwater samples were collected and analyzed for salinity and nitrate content. New statistical techniques of prediction profiler and hierarchical cluster combined with geographic information systems (GIS) were used to assess the groundwater quality based on three categorical controlling factors; landuse/ land cover (LULC), soil texture, and aquifer type.

Anthropogenic changes in land use and cover (LULC) in stream catchments can alter the composition of riparian plant communities, which can affect ecosystem functions of riparian areas and streams from local to landscape scales. We conducted a study to determine if woody plant species composition and abundance along headwater streams were correlated with categorical and continuous LULC and environmental variables along an urban-to-rural gradient.

A map showing various urban features, such as buildings, roads, and vegetation, is useful for a variety of urban planning applications. The objective of this study was to incorporate road and parcel GIS data as well as relevant expert knowledge to classify different urban land covers from 1-meter, 4-band NAIP images. Based on a hybrid simultaneous-classification and one-by-one-classification approach, a total of 14 urban classes are classified.

The relationship between land cover patterns and surface temperature was examined using random forest as well as simple linear regression for two urban sites in Denver, Colorado, USA. Among four land cover types of buildings, trees, grass, and roads and parking lots, only trees and roads and parking lots show significant spatial metrics affecting surface temperature using both the methods.

Accurate and timely information about the geographic distribution of irrigated cropland is important for a range of applications including crop assessments, water resources management, drought monitoring, and environmental modeling.

Information on wetland condition can be used for various decision-making processes for better management of this vital resource. Salt marshes are complex ecosystems that are not well mapped and understood. This research was conducted to assess the potential of high-spatial and high-spectral resolution satellite data to map and monitor salt-marsh vegetation communities of Micalo Island of New South Wales, Australia.