Indicators Assessment for Habitat Conservation Plan of Yolo County, California, USA

/ Whereas habitat conservation plans (HCPs) have been intended to provide comprehensive environmental mitigation for multiple species, they often narrow in focus to one species and either one mitigation site or unspecified sites. We developed an indicators framework from which to rate land units for their ecological integrity, collateral values (nonbiological qualities that can improve conservation), and restoration and conservation opportunities. The ratings of land units were guided by the tenets of conservation biology and principles of landscape and ecosystem ecology, and they were made using existing physical and floral information managed on a GIS. As an example of how the indicators approach can be used for HCPs, the 29 legally rare species targeted by the Yolo County HCP were each associated with vegetation complexes and agricultural crops, the maps of which were used for rating some of the landscape indices. The ratings were mapped so that mitigation can be directed to the places on the landscape where the legally rare species should benefit most from conservation practices. The most highly rated land units for conservation opportunity occurred along streams and sloughs, especially where they emerged from the foothills and entered the Central Valley and where the two largest creeks intersected the Sacramento River flood basin. We recommend that priority be given to mitigation or conservation at the most highly rated land units. The indices were easy to measure and can be used with other tools to monitor the mitigation success. The indicators framework can be applied to other large-area planning efforts with some modifications.KEY WORDS: Ecosystem; Indicators; Landscape; Mitigation; Planning; Yolo County; California     

An approach based on spatial multicriteria analysis to map the nature conservation value of agricultural land

Knowledge of the nature conservation value of agricultural land provides a useful input to land-use planning. However, the scarcity of suitable data causes this component to rarely play a role. The paper proposes a methodology based on commonly available data to assess the nature conservation value of agricultural landscapes, and to generate cartographic results to be used as decision variables in planning. The approach relies on landscape ecological indicators and on the application of multicriteria analysis in a Geographical Information System (GIS) context. Four criteria were selected: the agricultural landscape type, the cover of vegetation remnants and marginal features, the length of forest-agriculture ecotones, and the proximity to nature reserves. These criteria were assessed directly or by means of specific indicators, generating maps that were subsequently aggregated through spatial multicriteria analysis. The approach was tested in an alpine area located in Trentino (northern Italy).     

Integrating Landscape Ecology and Geoinformatics to Decipher Landscape Dynamics for Regional Planning

We used remote sensing and GIS in conjunction with multivariate statistical methods to: (i) quantify landscape composition (land cover types) and configuration (patch density, diversity, fractal dimension, contagion) for five coastal watersheds of Kalloni gulf, Lesvos Island, Greece, in 1945, 1960, 1971, 1990 and 2002/2003, (ii) evaluate the relative importance of physical (slope, geologic substrate, stream order) and human (road network, population density) variables on landscape composition and configuration, and (iii) characterize processes that led to land cover changes through land cover transitions between these five successive periods in time. Distributions of land cover types did not differ among the five time periods at the five watersheds studied because the largest cumulative changes between 1945 and 2002/2003 did not take place at dominant land cover types. Landscape composition related primarily to the physical attributes of the landscape. Nevertheless, increase in population density and the road network were found to increase heterogeneity of the landscape mosaic (patchiness), complexity of patch shape (fractal dimension), and patch disaggregation (contagion). Increase in road network was also found to increase landscape diversity due to the creation of new patches. The main processes involved in land cover changes were plough-land abandonment and ecological succession. Landscape dynamics during the last 50 years corroborate the ecotouristic-agrotouristic model for regional development to reverse trends in agricultural land abandonment and human population decline and when combined with hypothetical regulatory approaches could predict how this landscape could develop in the future, thus, providing a valuable tool to regional planning.     

Erosion risk analysis by GIS in environmental impact assessments: a case study--Seyhan Köprü Dam construction

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a systematically constructed procedure whereby environmental impacts caused by proposed projects are examined. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are crucially efficient tools for impact assessment and their use is likely to dramatically increase in the near future. GIS have been applied to a wide range of different impact assessment projects and dams among them have been taken as the case work in this article. EIA Regulation in force in Turkey requires the analysis of steering natural processes that can be adversely affected by the proposed project, particularly in the section of the analysis of the areas with higher landscape value. At this point, the true potential value of GIS lies in its ability to analyze spatial data with accuracy. This study is an attempt to analyze by GIS the areas with higher landscape value in the impact assessment of dam constructions in the case of Seyhan-K?prü Hydroelectric Dam project proposal. A method needs to be defined before the overlapping step by GIS to analyze the areas with higher landscape value. In the case of Seyhan-K?prü Hydroelectric Dam project proposal of the present work, considering the geological conditions and the steep slopes of the area and the type of the project, the most important natural process is erosion. Therefore, the areas of higher erosion risk were considered as the Areas with Higher Landscape Value from the conservation demands points of view.     

Measuring landscape integrity (LI): development of a hybrid methodology for planning applications

Landscape integrity data-sets represent a measure of a landscape's naturalness, or its inverse, the level of human modification. Generally referred to as human footprint modeling, a hybrid approach was developed here by incorporating distance, density, and spatially explicit fuzzy logic methods for quantifying the impacts of anthropocentric infrastructure on the landscape. Integrity scores varied markedly across this large and heterogeneous landscape. A comparative analysis among peer data products revealed that this model exhibited the highest level of correlation when compared to an independently derived expert survey of expected scores. Moreover, differences in correlation were found to be statistically significant in two cases indicating robust model performance. Data products such as these may be leveraged to quantify the nature and extent of human modifications on the landscape, identify highly natural areas for conservation purposes, and may serve as an overarching umbrella for guiding and coordinating large and local-scale planning efforts.     

Land Use and Land Cover Change Analysis and Prediction in the Upper Reaches of the Minjiang River,China

Scientists have aimed at exploring land use and land cover change (LUCC) and modeling future landscape pattern in order to improve our understanding of the causes and consequences of these phenomena. This study addresses LUCC in the upper reaches of Minjiang River, China, from 1974 to 2000. Based on remotely sensed images, LUCC and landscape pattern change were assessed using cross-tabulation and landscape metrics. Then, using the CLUE-S model, changes in area of four types of land cover were predicted for two scenarios considering forest polices over the next 20 years. Results showed that forestland decreased from 1974 to 2000 due to continuous deforestation, while grassland and shrubland increased correspondingly. At the same time, the farmland and settlement land increased dramatically. Landscape fragmentation in the study area accompanied these changes. Forestland, grassland, and farmland take opposite trajectories in the two scenarios, as does landscape fragmentation. LUCC has led to ecological consequences, such as biodiversity loss and lowering of ecological carrying capacity.     

Landscape and Agricultural Patterns in Rural Areas: a Case Study in the Brionne Basin, Normandy, France

Landscape changes over a period of 25 years were assessed for a catchment basin in Normandy, France. Landscape attributes, i.e. land use, land cover and natural habitat, were obtained from aerial photographs (1964, 1989) and soil maps, to define a landscape typology. Data were aggregated on a 500 m×500 m grid system and treated by multivariate analysis. Results of these analysis show that this rural landscape has undergone changes in landcover (mainly grassland receding to crop) as well as changes in spatial structure (mainly increase of plot size and uniformisation). These changes were related to a typology of farms (realised by multivariate analysis of a field survey on the 38 registered farms of the site). Results suggest that (i) farms with a narrow range of production, i.e. specialised farms, are located on a narrow range of environmental conditions and are associated with stable landscapes, while (ii) farms with a broader range of production (i.e. polyculture) are distributed more widely throughout the landscape, and are mostly associated with the landscape changes.     

岷江流域三江交汇区景观格局变化研究

本文以生态景观理论为基础,地理信息与遥感技术为支撑,对岷江流域三江交汇区三期遥感数据,1990年TM、2002年TM、2014年ETM+数据进行图像分类、景观指数提取、空间分析,同时采用面积转移矩阵统计各景观面积的转移情况,分析景观格局变化的影响因素,研究结果表明:(1)1990—2014年三江交汇区景观类型面积排序为:农田林地草地水域居民地裸地。优势景观为耕地,所占比例由72.83%下降到63.32%,面积减少了3480hm2。草地所占比例呈现波动变化,总体增加了2.81%。林地比例由15.98%上升到18.79%,增加了700hm2。居民地所占比例升高了4.1%;(2)1990年研究区内草地景观易受到外部干扰,其分布形状复杂。林地景观整体聚合度较高同时具有较低的异质性,分布通透性好、规模连续。农田分布较为分散且斑块较小。2002年农田斑块分布复杂化,同时具有聚集度高的特点。2014年研究区内农田优势地位下降。此时农田分布比较破碎并且呈现集中的态势。草地分布规模性较好、分布较为完整,但是内部存在一定的破碎性;(3)三江交汇区景观类型相互转化的主要原因:一是,退耕还林、还草政策实施,海拔超过500m的丘陵山地区域,建立生态保护区。二是,成绵乐铁路和高速路网的完善,使得三江交汇区的土地类型向建设用地转化加快,主要集中在乐山市中区和周围城镇。     

Hydrologic Modeling Uncertainty Resulting From Land Cover Misclassification1

Abstract: A stochastic, spatially explicit method for assessing the impact of land cover classification error on distributed hydrologic modeling is presented. One‐hundred land cover realizations were created by systematically altering the North American Landscape Characterization land cover data according to the dataset’s misclassification matrix. The matrix indicates the probability of errors of omission in land cover classes and is used to assess the uncertainty in hydrologic runoff simulation resulting from parameter estimation based on land cover. These land cover realizations were used in the GIS‐based Automated Geospatial Watershed Assessment tool in conjunction with topography and soils data to generate input to the physically‐based Kinematic Runoff and Erosion model. Uncertainties in modeled runoff volumes resulting from these land cover realizations were evaluated in the Upper San Pedro River basin for 40 watersheds ranging in size from 10 to 100 km² under two rainfall events of differing magnitudes and intensities. Simulation results show that model sensitivity to classification error varies directly with respect to watershed scale, inversely to rainfall magnitude and are mitigated or magnified by landscape variability depending on landscape composition.     

A landscape vulnerability analysis method proposal and its integration in the EIA

Landscape is the area primarily affected by proposed human projects. The prediction and evaluation of the potential anthropogenic impacts under Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is therefore one of the major environmental tools for prevention of any deteriorative or destructive actions. To conduct EIA properly requires inclusion of a determination of landscape vulnerability which expresses the possible landscape reaction to impacts of any exogenous factors. When it is designated correctly, the suitable human activities are determined more accurately. Even though many techniques for this have been suggested worldwide, lots of deficiencies have surfaced in their application. This paper presents a method for landscape vulnerability analysis which consists of qualitative evaluation of landscape receptors, their scoring, the vulnerability degree calculation, and overall reliability evaluation. The method proposed can improve the impact objectivity of prediction and evaluation and the suggestion of precise mitigation measures with the purpose of achieving sustainable landscape management.     

Landscape Characterization Integrating Expert and Local Spatial Knowledge of Land and Forest Resources

In many developing countries, political documentation acknowledges the crucial elements of participation and spatiality for effective land use planning. However, operative approaches to spatial data inclusion and representation in participatory land management are often lacking. In this paper, we apply and develop an integrated landscape characterization approach to enhance spatial knowledge generation about the complex human–nature interactions in landscapes in the context of Zanzibar, Tanzania. We apply an integrated landscape conceptualization as a theoretical framework where the expert and local knowledge can meet in spatial context. The characterization is based on combining multiple data sources in GIS, and involves local communities and their local spatial knowledge since the beginning into the process. Focusing on the expected information needs for community forest management, our characterization integrates physical landscape features and retrospective landscape change data with place-specific community knowledge collected through participatory GIS techniques. The characterization is established in a map form consisting of four themes and their synthesis. The characterization maps are designed to support intuitive interpretation, express the inherently uncertain nature of the data, and accompanied by photographs to enhance communication. Visual interpretation of the characterization mediates information about the character of areas and places in the studied local landscape, depicting the role of forest resources as part of the landscape entity. We conclude that landscape characterization applied in GIS is a highly potential tool for participatory land and resource management, where spatial argumentation, stakeholder communication, and empowerment are critical issues.     

不同生态区域油气田开发对土地覆盖变化的影响

利用RS-GIS技术,分析了四川合兴场气田周围1988年和2000年TM影像和新疆艾桑油气田周围1992年和2000年TM影像土地变化情况。分析结果表明:生态发达的四川合兴场气田周围在油田田开发前后主要为耕地,而建设用地在1988年占区域面积的12.6%,到2000年增加到17.8%。位于生态脆弱区的艾桑油气田,兴建前后主要土地利用类型均为戈壁荒漠、盐碱地,建设用地面积则明显增加,从1992年占总面积的0.02%增加到2000年的0.24%。由此可见,大面积分布式的油气田开发改变了油气田周围土地利用类型的分布。景观格局分析指数表明,四川合兴场周围多样性指数及均匀度指数均呈增加趋势,而艾桑油气田周围多样性指数及均匀度指数均呈现下降趋势。四川合兴场气田周围空间景观呈多样化发展,而新疆艾桑油气田周围空间景观多样性下降,荒漠土地呈扩大化发展趋势。     

Analysis of Changes in Farm Pond Network Connectivity in the Peri-Urban Landscape of the Taoyuan Area,Taiwan

The farm pond system for irrigation is the most prominent feature in the Taoyuan area, Taiwan, giving the region a unique landscape and hydrological character. Although this area had more than 3,290 ponds in the 1970s, fewer than 1,800 now remain. This study analyzes changes in irrigation farm ponds and the canal network landscape in the Taoyuan area. The spatial and temporal changes to ponds and the canal network on the Taoyuan plain were examined graphically for each spatial unit (2,765 m × 2,525 m) using aerial photographs for 1979 and 2005. Landscape metrics were calculated to analyze landscape change associated with increased urbanization. Landscape indices of connectivity and circuitry were utilized to describe changes in the configuration of ponds and canal networks. The total length of canals and total number of ponds in the study area decreased significantly during 1979-2005. The average values of connectivity indices (γ- and α-index) also decreased during 1979-2005, reflecting degradation of canal networks due to urban sprawl. A multivariate technique was applied to portion the study area into three zones according to changes to land cover, ponds, and canal networks. The effects of urban sprawl on the spatial pattern of ponds and canal networks are discussed.     

INTEGRATING LANDSCAPE ASSESSMENT AND HYDROLOGIC MODELING FOR LAND COVER CHANGE ANALYSIS1

ABSTRACT: Significant land cover changes have occurred in the watersheds that contribute runoff to the upper San Pedro River in Sonora, Mexico, and southeast Arizona. These changes, observed using a series of remotely sensed images taken in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, have been implicated in the alteration of the basin hydrologic response. The Cannonsville subwatershed, located in the Catskill/Delaware watershed complex that delivers water to New York City, provides a contrast in land cover change. In this region, the Cannonsville watershed condition has improved over a comparable time period. A landscape assessment tool using a geographic information system (GIS) has been developed that automates the parameterization of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) and KINEmatic Runoff and EROSion (KINEROS) hydrologic models. The Automated Geospatial Watershed Assessment (AGWA) tool was used to prepare parameter input files for the Upper San Pedro Basin, a subwatershed within the San Pedro undergoing significant changes, and the Cannonsville watershed using historical land cover data. Runoff and sediment yield were simulated using these models. In the Cannonsville watershed, land cover change had a beneficial impact on modeled watershed response due to the transition from agriculture to forest land cover. Simulation results for the San Pedro indicate that increasing urban and agricultural areas and the simultaneous invasion of woody plants and decline of grasslands resulted in increased annual and event runoff volumes, flashier flood response, and decreased water quality due to sediment loading. These results demonstrate the usefulness of integrating remote sensing and distributed hydrologic models through the use of GIS for assessing watershed condition and the relative impacts of land cover transitions on hydrologic response.     

Regionalization of Landscape Pattern Indices Using Multivariate Cluster Analysis

Regionalization, or the grouping of objects in space, is a useful tool for organizing, visualizing, and synthesizing the information contained in multivariate spatial data. Landscape pattern indices can be used to quantify the spatial pattern (composition and configuration) of land cover features. Observable patterns can be linked to underlying processes affecting the generation of landscape patterns (e.g., forest harvesting). The objective of this research is to develop an approach for investigating the spatial distribution of forest pattern across a study area where forest harvesting, other anthropogenic activities, and topography, are all influencing forest pattern. We generate spatial pattern regions (SPR) that describe forest pattern with a regionalization approach. Analysis is performed using a 2006 land cover dataset covering the Prince George and Quesnel Forest Districts, 5.5 million ha of primarily forested land base situated within the interior plateau of British Columbia, Canada. Multivariate cluster analysis (with the CLARA algorithm) is used to group landscape objects containing forest pattern information into SPR. Of the six generated SPR, the second cluster (SPR2) is the most prevalent covering 22% of the study area. On average, landscapes in SPR2 are comprised of 55.5% forest cover, and contain the highest number of patches, and forest/non-forest joins, indicating highly fragmented landscapes. Regionalization of landscape pattern metrics provides a useful approach for examining the spatial distribution of forest pattern. Where forest patterns are associated with positive or negative environmental conditions, SPR can be used to identify similar regions for conservation or management activities.     

Landscape Trends in Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States Ecoregions

Landscape pattern and composition metrics are potential indicators for broad-scale monitoring of change and for relating change to human and ecological processes. We used a probability sample of 20-km × 20-km sampling blocks to characterize landscape composition and pattern in five US ecoregions: the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain, Southeastern Plains, Northern Piedmont, Piedmont, and Blue Ridge Mountains. Land use/land cover (LULC) data for five dates between 1972 and 2000 were obtained for each sample block. Analyses focused on quantifying trends in selected landscape pattern metrics by ecoregion and comparing trends in land cover proportions and pattern metrics among ecoregions. Repeated measures analysis of the landscape pattern documented a statistically significant trend in all five ecoregions towards a more fine-grained landscape from the early 1970s through 2000. The ecologically important forest cover class also became more fine-grained with time (i.e., more numerous and smaller forest patches). Trends in LULC, forest edge, and forest percent like adjacencies differed among ecoregions. These results suggest that ecoregions provide a geographically coherent way to regionalize the story of national land use and land cover change in the United States. This study provides new information on LULC change in the southeast United States. Previous studies of the region from the 1930s to the 1980s showed a decrease in landscape fragmentation and an increase in percent forest, while this study showed an increase in forest fragmentation and a loss of forest cover.     

COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF LAND COVER DATA SOURCES FOR EROSION PREDICTION1

ABSTRACT: A fundamental problem in protecting surface drinking water supplies is the identification of sites highly susceptible to soil erosion and other forms of nonpoint source (NPS) pollution. The New York City Department of Environmental Protection is trying to identify erodible sites as part of a program aimed at avoiding costly filtration. New York City's 2,000 square mile watershed system is well suited for analysis with geographic information systems (GIS); an increasingly important tool to determine the spatial distribution of sensitive NPS pollution areas. This study used a GIS to compare three land cover sources for input into the Modified Universal Soil Loss Equation (MUSLE), a model estimating soil loss from rangeland and forests, for a tributary watershed within New York City's water supply system. Sources included both conventional data (aerial photography) and Landsat data (MSS and TM images). Although land cover classifications varied significantly across these sources, location-specific and aggregate watershed predictions of the MUSLE were very similar. We conclude that using Landsat TM imagery with a hybrid classification algorithm provides a rapid, objective means of developing large area land cover databases for use in the MUSLE, thus presenting an attractive alternative to photo interpretation.     

Implications of Land Use/Land Cover Change in the Buffer Zone of a National Park in the Tropical Andes

The impacts of land use and land cover (LULC) change in buffer zones surrounding protected ecological reserves have important implications for the management and conservation of these protected areas. This study examines the spatial and temporal patterns of LULC change along the boundary of Rio Abiseo National Park in the Northern Peruvian Andes. Landscape change within four ecological zones was evaluated based on trends expected to occur between 1987 and 2001. Landsat TM and ETM imagery were used to produce LULC classification maps for both years using a hybrid supervised/unsupervised approach. LULC changes were measured using landscape metrics and from-to change maps created by post-classification change detection. Contrary to expectations, tropical upper wet montane forest increased despite being threatened by human-induced fires and cattle grazing of the highland grasslands inside the park. Within the park’s buffer zone, tropical moist forest remnants were fragmented into more numerous and smaller patches between 1987 and 2001; this was in part due to conversion into agricultural land. The methods used in this study provide an effective way to monitor LULC change detection and support the management of protected areas and their surrounding environments.     

STREAM HEALTH RANKINGS PREDICTED BY SATELLITE DERIVED LAND COVER METRICS1

ABSTRACT: Land cover and land use change have long been known to influence the chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of streams. This study makes use of land cover maps derived from fine resolution satellite imagery and an extensive stream quality dataset to determine the relationship between small watershed health rankings and land cover composition and configuration. Landscape metrics were derived from digital impervious surface area (ISA), tree cover (percent), and agricultural crop maps within Montgomery County, Maryland. Watershed rankings were developed by state and county collaborators (MD‐DNR and MCDEP) using extensive biological and chemical measurements. In stepwise logistic regression models the factors accounting for the most variation in stream health ranking were the percent ISA, followed by the percent of tree cover. Riparian buffer zone tree cover was also a significant predictor. Of the metrics that considered the spatial configuration of the landscape, a contagion index and the percent of ISA in the flow path from the ISA to the stream were also found to be significant predictors of stream health. Despite limited ability to characterize landscape configuration or narrow riparian buffer zone vegetation with coarser resolution imagery (from Landsat), model results were not significantly different from those based on the use of fine‐resolution ISA information, suggesting that broader area applications of the approach are possible. The results indicate that management practices designed to improve stream water quality should focus on the amount of ISA and tree cover in both the watershed and within the buffer zone.