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Displaying 536 - 540 of 1605Object-based identification of vegetation cover decline in irrigated agro-ecosystems in Uzbekistan
The sustainability of irrigated croplands in Central Asia is threatened by degradation of their productive function. To quantify the extent of the cropland degradation, this paper combines object-based change detection and spectral mixture analysis for vegetation cover decline mapping in irrigated agro-ecosystems in Uzbekistan based on multitemporal Landsat TM images from 1998 to 2009. The results of the change detection reveal that the cadastral field parcels, characterized by vegetation cover decrease, occupied 18% (52,938 ha) of the cropland area.
Monitoring land cover changes in African protected areas in the 21st century
Africa is home to some of the most vulnerable natural ecosystems and species on the planet. Around 7000 protected areas seek to safeguard the continent's rich biodiversity, but many of them face increasing management challenges. Human disturbances permeating into the parks directly and indirectly affect the ecological functioning and integrity of protected areas. With the envisaged expansion of the protected area network and further expected population and economic growth in the region, the competition between nature conservation and resources demands is likely to increase.
Decommissioning wind energy projects: An economic and political analysis
Wind energy is the fastest-growing segment of new electrical power capacity in the United States, with the potential for significant growth in the future. To facilitate such growth, a number of concerns between developers and landowners must be resolved, including assurance of wind turbine decommissioning at the end of their useful lives. Oklahoma legislators enlisted the authors to develop an economically-sound proposal to ensure developers complete their decommissioning obligations.
Open-source mapping and services for Web-based land-cover validation
Monitoring land-cover changes on sites of conservation importance allows environmental problems to be detected, solutions to be developed and the effectiveness of actions to be assessed. However, the remoteness of many sites or a lack of resources means these data are frequently not available. Remote sensing may provide a solution, but large-scale mapping and change detection may not be appropriate, necessitating site-level assessments. These need to be easy to undertake, rapid and cheap.
Effects of grassland restoration programs on ecosystems in arid and semiarid China
We explored the ecological effects of grassland restoration programs using satellite imagery and field plots sampling data and analyzing the patterns and mechanisms of land cover change and vegetation activities in arid and semiarid China during the period from 1982 to 2008. The grassland cover in the 1980s, 2000 and 2005 was compared before and after the restoration programs. The variability of net primary production (NPP) and rain use efficiency (RUE) were analyzed as indicators of vegetation productivity.