Earth Resources: A continuing bibliography with indexes

This bibliography lists 475 reports, articles and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system between January 1 and March 31, 1984. Emphasis is placed on the use of remote sensing and geophysical instrumentation in spacecraft and aircraft to survey and inventory natural resources and urban areas. Subject matter is grouped according to agriculture and forestry, environmental changes and cultural resources, geodesy and cartography, geology and mineral resources, hydrology and water management, data processing and distribution systems, instrumentation and sensors, and economical analysis

Evaluating the sustainability of urban agriculture projects

Evaluating the sustainability of urban agriculture projects. 5. International Symposium for Farming Systems Design (AGRO2015

Sustainable Energy Access for Communities

This open access book examines the transition to sustainable energy systems in emerging cities. Experts from around the world present case studies from different countries and discuss efforts were needed for achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The authors look into the issue of environment vs. economics and discuss the question of whether the energy transition goal can conflict with other development goals such as decent work and economic growth. Furthermore, innovation in energy transition is introduced, both in technology and citizens’ engagement. The book presents the latest developments on energy access and transition to sustainability throughout the overall value chain: from basic research in universities to documentation of lessons learned in the field. The empirical evidence presented makes this book appealing to scholars in the field of energy sustainability as well as to policy-makers and energy service companies

New fish product ideas generated by European consumers

Food lifestyles are changing; people have less time to spend on food purchase and preparation, therefore leading to increasing demand for new food products. However, around 76% of new food products launched in the market fail within the first year (Nielsen, 2014). One of the most effective ways to enhance new products’ success in the market is by incorporating consumers’ opinions and needs during the New Product Development (NPD) process (Moon et al., 2018). This study aimed to explore the usefulness of a qualitative technique, focus groups, to generate new aquaculture fish product ideas as well as to identify the most relevant product dimensions affecting consumers’ potential acceptance.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Sustainable Energy Access for Communities

This open access book examines the transition to sustainable energy systems in emerging cities. Experts from around the world present case studies from different countries and discuss efforts were needed for achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The authors look into the issue of environment vs. economics and discuss the question of whether the energy transition goal can conflict with other development goals such as decent work and economic growth. Furthermore, innovation in energy transition is introduced, both in technology and citizens’ engagement. The book presents the latest developments on energy access and transition to sustainability throughout the overall value chain: from basic research in universities to documentation of lessons learned in the field. The empirical evidence presented makes this book appealing to scholars in the field of energy sustainability as well as to policy-makers and energy service companies

Time series analysis of high resolution remote sensing data to assess degradation of vegetation cover of the island of Socotra (Yemen)

The island of Socotra has long been in geographical isolation, hence nearly 30% of the plant species are believed to be endemic to the island. Until the end of 20th century there was only very little and incomplete information and literature about the vegetation on the island. This isolation broke down in 1990 with the country unification in which then the island received much attention. Subsequently the scientific knowledge of the local flora slowly increased, but many of plant species are now reported to be confined into small populations, hence being particularly vulnerable to habitat loss, overgrazing, as well as urban expansion. 1. The overall objective of this research attempted to assess and examine the trends of vegetation changes since 1972 to 2010 with the use of Landsat MSS, TM and ETM+ images and to investigate the related driving factors, such as rainfall, grazing pressure changes and underlying spatial variability of the landscape. This is to answer the overall question: Is there a trend in biomass, cover and species composition on Socotra Island over the last 40 years? If so, is that trend associated with the rainfall patterns? What are the drivers behind the vegetation change? And then how can we define changes in patterns or changes in this study area? 2. From a methodological point of view, our approach of systematically using remote sensing technology data proved scientifically an applicable tool to improve our understanding of the spatial complexity and heterogeneity of the vegetation cover as well as to provide a conceptual method with specific data for monitoring the changes over this time period. Our data obtained from these different Landsat sensors during the study period were - after many sophisticated processing steps - essentially able to provide time series information for Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data and to assess the long term trend in vegetation cover in the island. 3. Moreover, our approach combining supervised maximum-likelihood and unsupervised classification with the pre- and the post-classification approaches besides the knowledge based classification was table to provide sufficient results to distinguish and to map nine (9) terrestrial vegetation cover classes. The overall accuracy (compared with ground truth data) was about 91%, 77%, 70% and 72% for the images 2005, 1994, 1984 and 1972 respectively. Consecutively, the GIS analysis allowed estimates of highly valuable information as absolute areas and relative coverage of particular vegetation classes over the island with their spatial distribution and also their ecological requirements. Analysis of climatic conditions and NDVI 4. As a results of the complex topography of the study area and the wide climate range, with the guidance of prior knowledge of functional relationships between site parameters, ecosystem and the specific form of biological production, our work resulted in a division of the entire area into six variously sized ecosystem units, which were enough to properly depict the spatial heterogeneity of the rainfall and vegetation and to assist reflecting the influence and reaction between environmental parameters as well as it might have significance both for development of resources and for conservation of environment

Spatio-temporal modelling of biomass

Environmental problems include erosion, salinisation, eutrophication, carbon allocation and rising C02 in the atmosphere. Environmental modelling, mapping, research and management are part of the solution to biophysical degradation. However, field data are usually limited and alternative data sources such as modelled or remotely sensed data must be calibrated. The resolutions between tht? different data sets must also be matched. Therefore there is a need to develop spatio-temporal models at an appropriate resolution to enhance limited field data. Such models need to be linked to the terrain surface (the spatial data) and incorporate climate (time varying) data. Preferably these models would maintain the integrity of source data (physical catchment attributes), have a predictive capacity and reflect catchment processes. In southern and eastern Australia catchments are mostly cleared, particularly those in low relief landscapes. These catchments have limited spatio-temporal vegetation data and therefore monitoring, research and management are constrained. Digital Elevation Models (DEM) can supply accurate spatial information about the terrain shape if appropriate source data, resolution and accurate interpolation methods are used. Hutchinson (1988) developed a locally adaptive algorithm which automatically calculates ridge and stream lines from points of locally maximum curvature on contour lines (chapter 2). Further developments by Hutchinson ( 1996) have provided a smoothing method, which has yielded useful error estimates for grid DEMs and a criterion for matching grid resolution to the information content of the source data. DEMs are essential input data for modelling terrain effects, which directly influence the surface conditions for plant growth. Climate is another dominant control over vegetative growth and climate data can also be limited. Climatic data can be modelled using interpolation methods developed by Hutchinson ( 1997). In this thesis, three approaches are developed to model the spatio-temporal distribution of biomass. These models are referred to as the Sub-catchment model, the Satellite model and the Topo-climate models. The Sub-catchment model calibrates the GROWEST model to biomass averaged over three separate sub-catchments (chapter 4). Combining catchment averaged climate data with disaggregated temperature and biomass GROWEST produced growth indices at each sub-catchment for 13 and 26 week growth accumulation periods. The 26 week growth accumulation period matched observed biomass data with greater accuracy than the 13 week period. The Satellite model simply calibrates biomass data with observed satellite data (chapter 3). Satellite data although spatially extensive requires atmospheric corrections and normalisation over time if direct comparisons are required. These models have limited predictive capacity, although they can be good for monitoring instantaneous catchment condition and structural features in the landscape. The third approach develops full spatio-temporal models, which simultaneously include effects of terrain (the spatial component) and climate (the temporal component) on biomass distribution (chapters 4, 5). The Topo-climate models are fitted using thin plate smoothing splines (Hutchinson 1999) (chapter 7). The Topo-climate models form a process based approach to spatio-temporal biomass modelling. They were successful in achieving spatio-temporal modelling of biomass in this catchment. They also have excellent predictive capacity, requiring only standard climate data. Model validation and statistical model comparisons were examined to determine the degree of parameterisation and accuracy of the different models. Model veracity is discussed and different applications for the various model types are suggested. Further research includes land management and research areas of vegetation modelling and carbon allocation. Predictive modelling of landscape processes such as the topo-climate models developed in this thesis, help to address environmental problems by providing spatio-temporal biomass data under varying climatic conditions for management and research purposes

Book of abstracts, 4th World Congress on Agroforestry

International audienc

Analysis of vegetation-activity trends in a global land degradation framework

Land degradation is a global issue on a par with climate change and loss of biodiversity, but its extent and severity are only roughly known and there is little detail on the immediate processes – let alone the drivers. Earth-observation methods enable monitoring of land resources in a consistent, physical way and on global scale by making use of vegetation activity and/or cover as proxies. A well-known spectral proxy is the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), which is available in high temporal resolution time series since the early 1980s. In this work, harmonic analyses and non-parametric trend tests were applied to the GIMMS NDVI dataset (1981–2008) in order to quantify positive changes (or greening) and negative changes (browning). Phenological shifts and variations in length of growing season were accounted for using analysis by vegetation development stage rather than by calendar day. This approach does not rely on temporal aggregation for elimination of seasonal variation. The latter might introduce artificial trends as demonstrated in the chapter on the modifiable temporal unit problem. Still, a major assumption underlying the analysis is that trends were invariant, i.e. linear or monotonic, over time. However, these monotonic trends in vegetation activity may consist of an alternating sequence of greening and/or browning periods. This effect and the contribution of short-term trends to longer-term change was analysed using a procedure for detection of trend breaks. Both abrupt and gradual changes were found in large parts of the world, especially in (semi-arid) shrubland and grassland. Many abrupt changes were found around large-scale natural influences like the Mt Pinatubo eruption in 1991 and the strong 1997/98 El Niño event. This marks the importance of accounting for trend changes in the analysis of long-term NDVI time series. These new change-detection techniques advance our understanding of vegetation variability at a multi-decadal scale, but do not provide links to driving processes. It is very complex to disentangle all natural and human drivers and their interactions. As a first step, the spatial relation between changes in climate parameters and changes in vegetation activity was addressed in this work. It appeared that a substantial proportion (54%) of the spatial variation in NDVI changes could be associated to climatic changes in temperature, precipitation and incident radiation, especially in forest biomes. In other regions, the lack of such associations might be interpreted as human-induced land degradation. With these steps we demonstrated the value of global satellite records for monitoring land resources, although many steps are still to be taken.</p