Water consumed through evapotranspiration (ET) impacts local and regional hydrologic regimes on various spatial and temporal scales. Estimating ET in the Great Plains is a prerequisite for effective regional water resource management of the Ogallala (High Plains) Aquifer, which supplies vital water resources in the form of irrigation for extensive agricultural production.

In the present study, Remote Sensing Technique and GIS tools were used to prepare landslide susceptibility map of Shiv-khola watershed, one of the landslide prone part of Darjiling Himalaya, based on 9 landslide inducing parameters like lithology, slope gradient, slope aspect, slope curvature, drainage density, upslope contributing area, land use and land cover, road contributing area and settlement density applying Analytical Hierarchy Approach (AHA). In this approach, quantification of the factors was executed on priority basis by pair-wise comparison of the factors.

Area-based information obtained from remote sensing and aerial photography is often used in studies on ecological footprint and sustainability, especially in calculating biocapacity. Given the importance of the modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP; i.e. the scale dependency of area-based information), a comprehensive understanding of how the changes of biocapacity across scales (i.e. the resolution of data) is pivotal for regional sustainable development.

Development of accurate classification methods for rapidly changing catchments like that of Lake Basaka is fundamental to better understanding the catchment dynamics, which were not addressed in previous studies. Thus, the aim of this study was to map the decadal land use/cover (LUC) regimes of the Lake Basaka catchment, utilizing time series of LANDSAT images and to analyse the changes that occurred at different time periods. Both unsupervised and supervised image classification systems were utilized in Earth Resources Data Analysis System (ERDAS) Imagine (9.1).

Herbaceous biomass, harvested and handled as hay, has potential for bioenergy production. In the Upper Southeast, fields that cannot be competitively managed to produce another crop can produce an acceptable yield of switchgrass. Using a delayed harvest (crop is allowed to dry standing in the field), switchgrass can be harvested from production fields over a 6-month period. This gives a significant advantage over a crop residue, like corn stover, which is collected over a 5-week harvest season in the Midwest. The Southeast has the potential to be a major bioenergy production region.

In this letter, we present the methodology and accuracy assessment of a new regional 250-m spatial resolution land cover map of insular Southeast Asia. Nearly 500 daily Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer images (acquired 2 January–3 July 2010) were used in the production of the map. Additionally, peatland maps, elevation information and Daichi-Advanced Land Observing Satellite mosaic data were utilized in the mapping process.

The Chilan Mountain cypress forest, northeastern Taiwan, is the only one where the genus Chamaecyparis is situated in a subtropical region. The health of a forest ecosystem is closely tied to the evapotranspiration (ET) of water through forests. This study focused on estimating the ET of old-growth cypress in the Chilan Mountain area and investigated its spatial variability in different watershed divisions using remote sensing.

In semi-arid African regions (annual rainfall between 200 and 600 mm), variability of vegetative activity is mainly due to the rainfall of the current rainy season. In most of South Africa, the rainy season occurs from October to March. On average, vegetative activity lags rainfall by 1 to 2 months. The interannual variability in early summer (December to September) normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) depends primarily on precipitation at the beginning (October to November) of the rainy season.

BACKGROUND: Recent evidence indicates that some populations of European corn borer (ECB), Ostrinia nubilalis (Hübner), have declined to historic lows owing to widespread adoption of Bt corn hybrids. To understand current ECB populations in Pennsylvania field corn, the authors assessed larval damage in Bt and non‐Bt corn hybrids at 29 sites over 3 years. The influence of Bt adoption rates, land cover types and moth activity on levels of ECB damage was also considered.

The active remote-sensing technique differential radar interferometry (D-InSAR) is a powerful method for detection and deformation monitoring of landslides. But the radar-specific imaging geometry causes specific spatial distortions in radar images (as e.g. the layover and shadowing effect), which have a negative impact on the suitability of these images for D-InSAR applications. To address this issue, we present a geographical information system (GIS) procedure to accurately predict the areas in which layover and shadowing will occur, before the area of interest is recorded by radar.