Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Land use change”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 289 records · Page 16
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1973

Land use mapping and modelling for the Phoenix Quadrangle

The author has identified the following significant results. The land use of the Phoenix Quadrangle in Arizona had been mapped previously from aerial photographs and recorded in a computer data bank. During the ERTS-1 experiment, changes in land use were detected using only the ERTS-1 images. The I2S color additive viewer was used as the principal image enhancement tool, operated in a multispectral mode. Hard copy color composite images of the best multiband combinations from ERTS-1 were made by photographic and diazo processes. The I2S viewer was also used to enhance changes between successive images by quick flip techniques or by registering with different color filters. More recently, a Bausch and Lomb zoom transferscope has been used for the same purpose. Improved interpretation of land use change resulted, and a map of changes within the Phoenix Quadrangle was compiled. The first level of a proposed standard land use classification system was sucessfully used. ERTS-1 underflight photography was used to check the accuracy of the ERTS-1 image interpretation. It was found that the total areas of change detected in the photos were comparable with the total areas of change detected in the ERTS-1 images.

Place, J. L.↗
NASA NTRS2001

Detection of Deforestation and Land Conversion in Rondonia, Brazil Using Change Detection Techniques

Fires associated with tropical deforestation, land conversion, and land use greatly contribute to emissions as well as the depletion of carbon and nutrient pools. The objective of this research was to compare change detection techniques for identifying deforestation and cattle pasture formation during a period of early colonization and agricultural expansion in the vicinity of Jamari, Rond6nia. Multi-date Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) data between 1984 and 1992 was examined in a 94 370-ha area of active deforestation to map land cover change. The Tasseled Cap (TC) transformation was used to enhance the contrast between forest, cleared areas, and regrowth. TC images were stacked into a composite multi-date TC and used in a principal components (PC) transformation to identify change components. In addition, consecutive TC image pairs were differenced and stacked into a composite multi-date differenced image. A maximum likelihood classification of each image composite was compared for identification of land cover change. The multi-date TC composite classification had the best accuracy of 78.1% (kappa). By 1984, only 5% of the study area had been cleared, but by 1992, 11% of the area had been deforested, primarily for pasture and 7% lost due to hydroelectric dam flooding. Finally, discrimination of pasture versus cultivation was improved due to the ability to detect land under sustained clearing opened to land exhibiting regrowth with infrequent clearing.

Guild, Liane S.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Land use mapping and modelling for the Phoenix Quadrangle

The author has identified the following significant results. The land use of the Phoenix Quadrangle in Arizona had been mapped previously from aerial photographs and recorded in a computer data bank. During the ERTS experiment, changes in land use were detected, first with the ERTS-simulation photographs, then with the ERTS-1 images when they became available. In each case, the I2S color additive viewer was used as the primary image enhancement tool, operated in a multispectral mode. A search was made for a method of creating hard copy color composite images of the best combinations of multiband composites from ERTS-1, mostly by photographic and diazo processes. The I2S viewer was also used to enhance changes between successive images by quick flip techniques or by registering with different color filters. Improved interpretation of land use change resulted, and a map of changes in the Phoenix Quadrangle was compiled using magnified ERTS-1 images alone. The first level of a standard land use classification system was successfully used. Between the ERTS-1 images for August and November, some differences were detected that could be caused by seasonal characteristics of vegetation or by change in use.

Place, J. L.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Land cover change detection using a GIS-guided, feature-based classification of Landsat thematic mapper data

Landsat TM data were combined with land cover and planimetric data layers contained in the State of Michigan's geographic information system (GIS) to identify changes in forestlands, specifically new oil/gas wells. A GIS-guided feature-based classification method was developed. The regions extracted by the best image band/operator combination were studied using a set of rules based on the characteristics of the GIS oil/gas pads.

Enslin, William R.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Evaluation of land cover change detection techniques using Landsat MSS data

Four techniques for detecting land cover change with Landsat MSS data were evaluated for a test site in east central Louisiana where forestland is being converted to cropland and pasture. The four techniques were: (1) post-classification differencing, (2) composite classification, (3) radiance value shift, and (4) regression modeling. Three of the techniques gave acceptable accuracies. The main differences were the amount of computer time and the level of complexity.

Burns, G. S.↗
NASA NTRS2017

The Impact of Anthropogenic Land Use and Land Cover Change on Regional Climate Extremes

Recent research highlights the role of land surface processes in heat waves, droughts, and other extreme events. Here we use an earth system model (ESM) from the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) to investigate the regional impacts of historical anthropogenic land useland cover change (LULCC) on combined extremes of temperature and humidity. A bivariate assessment allows us to consider aridity and moist enthalpy extremes, quantities central to human experience of near-surface climate conditions. We show that according to this model, conversion of forests to cropland has contributed to much of the upper central US and central Europe experiencing extreme hot, dry summers every 2-3 years instead of every 10 years. In the tropics, historical patterns of wood harvesting, shifting cultivation and regrowth of secondary vegetation have enhanced near surface moist enthalpy, leading to extensive increases in the occurrence of humid conditions throughout the tropics year round. These critical land use processes and practices are not included in many current generation land models, yet these results identify them as critical factors in the energy and water cycles of the midlatitudes and tropics.

Near-surface↗
NASA NTRS1982

Updating Landsat-derived land-cover maps using change detection and masking techniques

The California Integrated Remote Sensing System's San Bernardino County Project was devised to study the utilization of a data base at a number of jurisdictional levels. The present paper discusses the implementation of change-detection and masking techniques in the updating of Landsat-derived land-cover maps. A baseline landcover classification was first created from a 1976 image, then the adjusted 1976 image was compared with a 1979 scene by the techniques of (1) multidate image classification, (2) difference image-distribution tails thresholding, (3) difference image classification, and (4) multi-dimensional chi-square analysis of a difference image. The union of the results of methods 1, 3 and 4 was used to create a mask of possible change areas between 1976 and 1979, which served to limit analysis of the update image and reduce comparison errors in unchanged areas. The techniques of spatial smoothing of change-detection products, and of combining results of difference change-detection algorithms are also shown to improve Landsat change-detection accuracies.

Likens, W.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Some findings on the applications of ERTS and Skylab imagery for metropolitan land use analysis

The author has identified the following significant results. Work undertaken on a three-sensor land use data evaluation for a portion of the Phoenix area is reported. Analyses between land use data generated from 1970 high altitude photography and that detectable from ERTS and Skylab, especially in terms of changes in land use indicate that ERTS and Skylab imagery can be used effectively to detect and identify areas of post-1970 land use change, especially those documenting urban expansion at the rural-urban fringe. Significant preliminary findings on the utility of ERTS and Skylab data for metropolitan land use analysis, substantiated by evaluation with 1970 and 1972 ground control land use data are reported.

Alexander, R. H.↗
NASA NTRS2009

Impacts of a Changing Climate and Land Use on Reindeer Pastoralism: Indigenous Knowledge and Remote Sensing

The Arctic is home to many indigenous peoples, including those who depend on reindeer herding for their livelihood, in one of the harshest environments in the world. For the largely nomadic peoples, reindeer not only form a substantial part of the Arctic food base and economy, but they are also culturally important, shaping their way of life, mythologies, festivals and ceremonies. Reindeer pastoralism or husbandry has been practiced by numerous peoples all across Eurasia for thousands of years and involves moving herds of reindeer, which are very docile animals, from pasture to pasture depending on the season. Thus, herders must adapt on a daily basis to find optimal conditions for their herds according to the constantly changing conditions. Climate change and variability plus rapid development are increasingly creating major changes in the physical environment, ecology, and cultures of these indigenous reindeer herder communities in the North, and climate changes are occurring significantly faster in the Arctic than the rest of the globe, with correspondingly dramatic impacts (Oskal, 2008). In response to these changes, Eurasian reindeer herders have created the EALAT project, a comprehensive new initiative to study these impacts and to develop local adaptation strategies based upon their traditional knowledge of the land and its uses - in targeted partnership with the science and remote sensing community - involving extensive collaborations and coproduction of knowledge to minimize the impacts of the various changes. This chapter provides background on climate and development challenges to reindeer husbandry across the Arctic and an overview of the EALAT initiative, with an emphasis on indigenous knowledge, remote sensing, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and other scientific data to 'co-produce' datasets for use by herders for improved decision-making and herd management. It also provides a description of the EALAT monitoring data integration and sharing system and portal being developed for reindeer pastoralism. In addition, the chapter provides some preliminary results from the EALAT Project, including some early remote sensing research results.

Maynard, N. G.↗
NASA NTRS2001

An Integrated Use of Experimental, Modeling and Remote Sensing Techniques to Investigate Carbon and Phosphorus Dynamics in the Humid Tropics

Moist tropical forests comprise one of the world's largest and most diverse biomes, and exchange more carbon, water, and energy with the atmosphere than any other ecosystem. In recent decades, tropical forests have also become one of the globe's most threatened biomes, subjected to exceptionally high rates of deforestation and land degradation. Thus, the importance of and threats to tropical forests are undeniable, yet our understanding of basic ecosystem processes in both intact and disturbed portions of the moist tropics remains poorer than for almost any other major biome. Our approach in this project was to take a multi-scale, multi-tool approach to address two different problems. First, we wanted to test if land-use driven changes in the cycles of probable limiting nutrients in forest systems were a key driver in the frequently observed pattern of declining pasture productivity and carbon stocks. Given the enormous complexity of land use change in the tropics, in which one finds a myriad of different land use types and intensities overlain on varying climates and soil types, we also wanted to see if new remote sensing techniques would allow some novel links between parameters which could be sensed remotely, and key biogeochemical variables which cannot. Second, we addressed to general questions about the role of tropical forests in the global carbon cycle. First, we used a new approach for quantifying and minimizing non-biological artifacts in the NOAA/NASA AVHRR Pathfinder time series of surface reflectance data so that we could address potential links between Amazonian forest dynamics and ENSO cycles. Second, we showed that the disequilibrium in C-13 exchanged between land and atmosphere following tropical deforestation probably has a significant impact on the use of 13-CO2 data to predict regional fluxes in the global carbon cycle.

Townsend, Alan R.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Land Use and Land Cover Change in Forest Frontiers: The Role of Household Life Cycles

Tropical deforestation remains a critical issue given its present rate and a widespread consensus regarding its implications for the global carbon cycle and biodiversity. Nowhere is the problem more pronounced than in the Amazon basin, home to the world's largest intact, tropical forest. This article addresses land cover change processes at household level in the Amazon basin, and to this end adapts a concept of domestic life cycle to the current institutional environment of tropical frontiers. In particular, it poses a risk minimization model that integrates demography with market-based factors such as transportation costs and accessibility. In essence, the article merges the theory of Chayanov with the household economy framework, in which markets exist for inputs (including labor), outputs, and capital. The risk model is specified and estimated, using survey data for 261 small producers along the Transamazon Highway in the eastern sector of the Brazilian Amazon.

Walker, Robert↗
NASA NTRS2021

Tonlé Sap Food Security and Agriculture: Evaluating the Effects of Land Use and Hydrological Change on Ecosystem Vitality using Remotely-Sensed Data in the Tonlé Sap Lake Basin

Tonlé Sap Lake, the largest lake in Southeast Asia, is a critical source of fish and freshwater resources for the region. The health of this freshwater system is under pressure from accelerating dam construction, intensifying agriculture, deforestation, and changing climate patterns, forcing tradeoffs between immediate food security and the long-term vitality and productivity of the ecosystem. Efficient freshwater system monitoring is crucial to navigating these challenges. In collaboration with Conservation International, the Cambodian Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology, and the Tonlé Sap Authority, we developed and tested remotely-sensed proxies for sub-indicators of the Freshwater Health Index (FHI), which is typically calculated using in situ datasets. We used landcover datasets derived from Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM), Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+), Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI), PROBA-V Vegetation sensor (VGT), Sentinel-2 Multispectral Imager (MSI), Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), and Envisat Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) as inputs to calculate land cover naturalness and bank modification. Additionally, we created a lake-level time series using a collection of altimetry data sources to estimate deviation from natural flow. We observed a decrease in landcover naturalness and a breakdown in the volume and regularity of annual lake levels from 2000-2020, reflecting increased pressure on water supply and agricultural productivity. At least 8% of forested areas in the basin were lost and rice harvest intensity increased over the course of the study period. These results will help our partners make informed decisions regarding freshwater management. Furthermore, our remotely-sensed FHI analysis can be replicated in other regions, providing decision makers with a snapshot of freshwater health in data-scarce environments.

Marco Vallejos↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Impact of Anthropogenic Activity, Climate Change, and Urbanization on Wetland Habitat in the Platte River Basin​

The Platte River Basin (PRB) is a dynamic ecosystem where wetlands play a pivotal role as essential habitats for various flora and fauna, including local and migratory birds. It provides many crucial ecosystem services that benefit humans directly and indirectly. However, anthropogenic activity, climate change, and urbanization have resulted in decline in wildlife habitat, elevated flood risk, and wetland loss. To address this issue, NASA DEVELOP partnered with Audubon Great Plains (AGP) to address the vital habitats within urban areas to protect bird species, reduce flood hazards, and analyze the potential impact of future development on wetlands. We utilized remotely sensed data from Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI), Sentinel-2 Multispectral Instrument (MSI), and Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) to assess land use and land cover (LULC) change. Nighttime lights data from Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) as well as NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) population data were also used as inputs to simulate urban growth potential up to 2050 using the open-source FUTure Urban-Regional Environment Simulation (FUTURES) model. A broad scale analysis across 13 focal cities showed varied changes in land use patterns across the PRB, with the most notable being a decrease in agricultural land coverage and an increase in vegetation and grassland coverage. We overlaid a flood extent map with the LULC classifications in Grand Island to identify possible restoration sites under AGP’s Urban Woods and Prairies Initiative. The results for two proposed scenarios showed that at least 51 counties out of 81 in the PRB would experience growth by year 2050. The first scenario (all wetlands are protected) showed that there will be no loss of wetlands by 2050. However, the second scenario (no wetlands are protected) showed a decrease in wetland area and loss of habitat for bird conservation. The results will help AGP to lead awareness workshops for communities about wetland protection and to form impactful conservation strategies in the future.​

Nancee Uniyal↗
NASA NTRS2009

Land-Use and Land-Cover Change around Mobile Bay, Alabama from 1974-2008

This document summarizes the major findings of a Gulf of Mexico Application Pilot project led by NASA Stennis Space Center (SSC) in conjunction with a regional collaboration network of the Gulf of Mexico Alliance (GOMA). NASA researchers processed and analyzed multi-temporal Landsat data to assess land-use and land-cover (LULC) changes in the coastal counties of Mobile and Baldwin, AL between 1974 and 2008. Our goal was to create satellite-based LULC data products using methods that could be transferable to other coastal areas of concern within the Gulf of Mexico. The Mobile Bay National Estuary Program (MBNEP) is the primary end-user, however, several other state and local groups may benefit from the project s data products that will be available through NOAA-NCDDC s Regional Ecosystem Data Management program. Mobile Bay is a critical ecologic and economic region in the Gulf of Mexico and to the entire country. Mobile Bay was designated as an estuary of national significance in 1996. This estuary receives the fourth largest freshwater inflow in the United States. It provides vital nursery habitat for commercially and recreationally important fish species. It has exceptional aquatic and terrestrial bio-diversity, however, its estuary health is influenced by changing LULC patterns, such as urbanization. Mobile and Baldwin counties have experienced a population growth of 1.1% and 20.5% from 2000-2006. Urban expansion and population growth are likely to accelerate with the construction and operation of the ThyssenKrupp steel mill in the northeast portion of Mobile County. Land-use and land-cover change can negatively impact Gulf coast water quality and ecological resources. The conversion of forest to urban cover types impacts the carbon cycle and increases the freshwater and sediment in coastal waters. Increased freshwater runoff decreases salinity and increases the turbidity of coastal waters, thus impacting the growth potential of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV), which is critical nursing ground for many Gulf fish species. A survey of Mobile Bay SAV showed widespread decreases since the 1940s. Prior to our project, coastal environmental managers in Baldwin and Mobile counties needed more understanding of the historical LULC for properly assessing the impacts of urbanization. In particular, more information on the location and extent of changing urbanization LULC patterns was needed to aid LULC planning and to assess predictions of future LULC patterns. Our products will assist the coastal environmental managers and land-use planners in making better community growth planning decisions. Our project also will help to establish a historical baseline of LULC distributions, which is a fundamental need in any stewardship plan. The primary research objective of our project was to produce historic and current geospatial LULC change products across a 34-year time frame. A multi-decadal coastal LULC change product was the major project deliverable. The geographic extent and nature of change was quantified and assessed for the upland herbaceous, barren, open water, urban, upland forest, woody wetland, and non-woody wetlanddominated land cover types. We focused on regional analyses of decadal-scale urban expansion and watershed-scaled analyses of LULC change for multiple areas of concern to the Mobile Bay NEP (Figure A). We used the following dates to derive LULC classification products from Landsat data: 1974, 1979, 1984, 1988, 1991, 1996, 2001, 2005, and 2008. We assessed the accuracy of our products using randomly sampled locations and digital geospatial reference data including field survey data, high resolution orthorectified aerial photography, high resolution multispectral and panchromatic satellite data displays (from QuickBird and Corona sensors), digital elevation model data, and National Wetlands Inventory wetland cover type data. NOAA s Coastal Change Assessment Program s (C-CAP) and National Land Cover Database (NLCD) procts were used for qualitative comparison in assessing map accuracy. We calculated an average overall classification accuracy of 87% with similar overall accuracies for the older (MSS) and newer (TM and ETM) Landsat LULC products.

Ellis, Jean↗
NASA NTRS2017

Mapping 2000 2010 Impervious Surface Change in India Using Global Land Survey Landsat Data

Understanding and monitoring the environmental impacts of global urbanization requires better urban datasets. Continuous field impervious surface change (ISC) mapping using Landsat data is an effective way to quantify spatiotemporal dynamics of urbanization. It is well acknowledged that Landsat-based estimation of impervious surface is subject to seasonal and phenological variations. The overall goal of this paper is to map 200-02010 ISC for India using Global Land Survey datasets and training data only available for 2010. To this end, a method was developed that could transfer the regression tree model developed for mapping 2010 impervious surface to 2000 using an iterative training and prediction (ITP) approach An independent validation dataset was also developed using Google Earth imagery. Based on the reference ISC from the validation dataset, the RMSE of predicted ISC was estimated to be 18.4%. At 95% confidence, the total estimated ISC for India between 2000 and 2010 is 2274.62 +/- 7.84 sq km.

Wang, Panshi↗
NASA NTRS1977

Investigation of the effects of construction and stage filling of reservoirs on the environment and ecology: Preproject baseline

The author has identified the following significant results: (1) LANDSAT imagery can be used effectively as a baseline for detection of environmental change, resulting from construction of a major inland reservoir. (2) Forest cover can be observed adequately on two-band composite enlargements at a scale of 1:130,000. (3) Forest cover delineated on LANDSAT enlargements compares accurately with ground truth at a scale of 1:250,000. (4) A dual image mapping technique superimposing winter, summer, and spring scenes using the zoom transfer scope facilitates the determination. (5) The same technique can be used to detect changes in the project area, resulting from construction activities. (6) High altitude aircraft imagery can also be used to interpret changes in land use and forest type. (7) Construction operations can be more clearly detailed on the air photos than on LANDSAT imagery.

Riggins, R. E.↗