West Nile Virus (WNV) was first detected in the Texas equine population during June 2002. Infection has since spread rapidly across the state and become endemic in the equine population. Environmental risk factors associated with equine WNV attack rates in Texas counties during the period 2002 to 2004 were investigated. Equine WNV attack rates were smoothed using an empirical Bayesian model, because of the variability among county equine populations (range 46-9,517).

Since last few decades RS-GIS is playing vital role in studying and mapping spatiotemporal responses of land cover, however, as a matter of fact, the mapping outputs largely depend on the expert's/user's preferences because location specific and people specific land cover classification systems are adopted autonomously for image classification in GIS. This may actually lead to an ambiguous definition of a particular land cover type when such different maps are compared at global level.

The black-and-white snub-nosed monkey Rhinopithecus bieti is endemic to China, where its population is fragmented into 15 isolated groups and threatened despite efforts to protect the species. Here we analyse possible habitat connectivity between the groups reported in Yunnan, using genetic, least-cost path and Euclidean distances. We detect genetic isolation between the northern and southern groups but not among the northern groups. We show that genetic distance is better explained by human disturbance and land-cover least-cost paths than by Euclidian distance.

Farming practices are rarely considered in the description of agricultural landscapes. However, the variety of cropping systems creates a particular kind of heterogeneity which can strongly affect the diversity of species living in agro-ecosystems, and consequently the ecosystem services they provide. In this study, we investigate the effects of landscape composition and configuration of organic and conventional farming practices on three groups of aphids’ natural enemies, compared to field habitat quality and land cover heterogeneity.

PURPOSE: Until recently, life cycle assessments (LCAs) have only addressed the direct greenhouse gas emissions along a process chain, but ignored the CO2 emissions of land-use. However, for agricultural products, these emissions can be substantial. Here, we present a new methodology for including the implications of land occupation for CO2 emissions to realistically reflect the consequences of consumers’ decisions.

Protected areas are established to conserve unique features and biodiversity of the nature. Accordingly, wherever has one of the natural, ecological and/or cultural values it should be considered a protected area. Kave-Deh No-hunting Area is located on extremely east of Tehran Province in an area of 94,961 ha. Due to rich and diverse land cover, distinctive wildlife species, and unique monuments the area was selected as a case study to examine the possibility of its promotion to the protected area using Spatial Multi Criteria Evaluation (SMCE) Method.

The most prominent factors inducing landscape change in the rural regions of south west Europe are depopulation and the associated socio-ecological modifications. The aim of this work was to assess the future implications of these processes on land use/land cover and biodiversity in northwest Iberia. To achieve our goal, we developed a virtual spatially explicit dynamic model to simulate regional socio-ecological dynamics.

Frequent alteration in land cover often leads to decreased stability of ecosystems which can also increase the vulnerability of rural communities to externalities of environmental change. This study carried out in parts of the coast of southwestern Nigeria utilized topographic base maps and two-time Landsat TM imageries to assess the trend in land cover changes and ecosystems degradation for the three time periods 1965, 1986 and 2001. Remote sensing, geographic information systems and landscape pattern analysis were employed for data processing and analysis.

Spring phenophases such as the beginning of leaf unfolding, measured in the Irish gardens of the International Phenological Garden (IPG) network, indicate an earlier spring occurrence hence a longer growing season. However, these measurements are limited to selected species of trees at a few point locations in the southern half of the country. The aim of this study was to develop a methodology, based on satellite remote sensing, to measure the vegetation start of season (SOS) across the whole island of Ireland on an annual basis, complementary to existing ground-based methods.

Soil moisture pulses are a prerequisite for other land surface pulses at various spatiotemporal scales in arid and semi-arid areas. The temporal dynamics and profile variability of soil moisture in relation to land cover combinations were studied along five slopes transect on the Loess Plateau during the rainy season of 2011. Within the 3 months of the growing season coupled with the rainy season, all of the soil moisture was replenished in the area, proving that a type stability exists between different land cover soil moisture levels.

Airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) systems are used to measure the range (distance from the sensor to the target) and the intensity data (the backscattered energy from the target). LiDAR has been used extensively to model the topography of the Earth surface. Nowadays, LiDAR systems operating in the near-infrared spectral range are also gaining high interest for land cover classification and object recognition. LiDAR system requires geometric calibration (GC) and radiometric correction (RC) in order to maximize the benefit from the collected LiDAR data.

India, a mega-diverse country, possesses a wide range of climate and vegetation types along with a varied topography. The present study has classified forest types of India based on multi-season IRS Resourcesat-2 Advanced Wide Field Sensor (AWiFS) data. The study has characterized 29 land use/land cover classes including 14 forest types and seven scrub types. Hybrid classification approach has been used for the classification of forest types.