HR: 0830h
AN: B41C-0901    [PDF]
TI: Characterizing regional land cover change by synthesis of information at multiple spatial scales
AU: * Hagen, S C
EM: steve.hagen@unh.edu
AF: Complex Systems Research Center, EOS, University of New Hampshire, Morse Hall 39 College Road, Durham, NH 03824 United States
AU: Braswell, B H
EM: rob.braswell@unh.edu
AF: Complex Systems Research Center, EOS, University of New Hampshire, Morse Hall 39 College Road, Durham, NH 03824 United States
AU: Salas, W A
EM: wsalas@agsemail.com
AF: Applied Geosolutions, LLC, 10 Newmarket Road, Durham, NH 03824 United States
AU: Linder, E
AF: Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of New Hampshire, Kingsbury Hall, Durham, NH 03824 United States
AB: In order to evaluate the implication of land use change on ecosystems, biogeochemistry, and the atmosphere, those changes and their uncertainties must first be quantified. This task is especially challenging at regional to global scales, where tradeoffs exist between spatial resolution and temporal coverage. Several existing approaches involve the use of both high-resolution and moderate-resolution imagery, and their combination, to identify dominant land cover types within a pixel or grid cell. Other approches are based on the notion of mixing of functional or structural types within landscape elements. The Amazon region of Brazil provides an important testing ground for these methods. In this presentation we review current approaches for characterizing land cover and change, and present the results of an analysis that combines MODIS nadir-adjusted reflectances, landsat ETM reflectance data, and extensive field validation. We provide a statistical estimate of upper and lower bounds of basin-wide coverage of cleared land for pastures or agriculture and secondary vegetation. We define limits to precision in our ability to detect changes in these total areas over this region.
DE: 0400 Biogeosciences
DE: 1615 Biogeochemical processes (4805)
DE: 1640 Remote sensing
DE: 1694 Instruments and techniques
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting