An Observing System Simulation Experiment (OSSE) for the Aquarius/SAC-D mission that includes different models for forward and retrieval processes is presented. This OSSE is implemented to study the errors related to the use of simple retrieval models in passive microwave applications. To this end, a theoretical forward model was introduced, which is suitable to reproduce some of the complexities related to canopy vegetation scattering.

Rapid land use/land cover changes have taken place in many cities of Turkey. Land use and land cover changes are essential for wide range of applications. In this study, Landsat TM satellite imageries date from 1987, 1993, 2000 and 2010 were used to analyse temporal and spatial changes in the Western Black Sea Region of Turkey. Zonguldak and Eregli two largest and economic important cities which have been active coal mining and iron fabric areas.

The conservation of Himalayan forests is big concern in view of global agenda. Many studies in this endeavor reported that the rate of forests degradation is posing a severe threat to the landscape and existing biodiversity in the Himalayas.

Flows from river basins in northwestern Canada have been rising in the last two decades as a result of climate warming. In the wetland‐dominated basins that characterise the southern margin of permafrost, permafrost thaw and disappearance, and resulting land‐cover change, is occurring at an unprecedented rate. The impact of this thaw on runoff generation in headwater basins is poorly understood.

The robustness of the physically-based, semi-distributed hydrological model ECOMAG with respect to changing (climatic or land-use) conditions was evaluated for two basins, considered within the modelling workshop held in the frame of the 2013 IAHS conference in Göteborg, Sweden. The first basin, the Garonne River basin, France, is characterized mostly by changes in climatic conditions, while the second, Obyån Creek, Sweden, was exposed to drastic land cover change due to deforestation.

The increasing interest in biodiversity conservation has led to the development of new approaches to facilitate ecologically based conservation policies and management plans. In this context, the development of effective methods for the classification of forest types constitutes a crucial issue as forests represent the most widespread vegetation structure and play a key role in ecosystem functioning. In this study a maximum entropy approach (Maxent) to forest type classification in a complex Mediterranean area, has been investigated.

Testing hydrological models under changing conditions is essential to evaluate their ability to cope with changing catchments and their suitability for impact studies. With this perspective in mind, a workshop dedicated to this issue was held at the 2013 General Assembly of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS) in Göteborg, Sweden, in July 2013, during which the results of a common testing experiment were presented.

The integration of spectral, textural, and topographic information using a random forest classifier for land-cover mapping in the rugged Nujiang Grand Canyon was investigated in this study. Only a few land-cover categories were accurately discriminated using spectral information exclusively, with an overall accuracy of 0.56 and a kappa coefficient of 0.51.

Recent progress in very high spatial resolution imagery (VHSRI) has increased the availability of fine‐scale land cover data over extensive areas. This new spatial information might improve our understanding of how land cover affects stream ecosystems. Land cover information was investigated in whole catchments and riparian areas in Normandy (France) and related to stream macroinvertebrates at 155 sites. The first model was based on the land cover data obtained via moderate spatial resolution imagery (MSRI) at the catchment scale.

Examination of the diurnal variations in surface urban heat islands (UHIs) has been hindered by incompatible spatial and temporal resolutions of satellite data. In this study, a diurnal temperature cycle genetic algorithm (DTC-GA) approach was used to generate the hourly 1 km land-surface temperature (LST) by integrating multi-source satellite data. Diurnal variations of the UHI in ‘ideal’ weather conditions in the city of Beijing were examined. Results show that the DTC-GA approach was applicable for generating the hourly 1 km LSTs.

Although there has been considerable interest in the rejuvenation and greening of inner-city schoolyards for several decades, recent studies on the behavioral and environmental impacts of greenspace, particularly tree cover, suggest that greenspace on schools may be more important than previously understood. However, little is known about the conditions and landcover of urban schoolyards. To understand the structure of the landcover on city schoolyards, this study used Geographic Information System software to classify and compare landcover on 258 U.S.

1. The restoration of native, forested riparian habitats is a widely accepted method for improving degraded streams. Little is known, however, about how the width, extent and continuity of forested vegetation along stream networks affect stream ecosystems. 2. To increase the likelihood of achieving restoration goals, restoration practitioners require quantitative tools to guide the development of restoration strategies in different catchment settings.