ASSESSMENT OF VOLUME AND ABOVE-GROUND BIOMASS IN ARAUCARIA FOREST THROUGH SATELLITE IMAGES, COMPARING DIFFERENT METHODS IN THE SOUTH OF CHILE

Abstract. Initial results of biomass estimation in the La Fusta area from existing equations found in literature are presented. As expected, accuracy of general equations suffer from the equation coefficients being obtained from fitting training data from different sites. It is also clear from the results that there is a high variance between different methods, in particular when complex data mixture is applied. Biomass is difficult to assess for dense forests, as pixels are saturated. This must be considered when planning field-data collection, with more samples in dense forest to provide more robust estimators from the training phase. The SAR-only (PALSAR) method from eq. 4 provided the most bias in results, overestimating with respect to the other methods

Criteria and Indicators to Define Priority Areas for Biodiversity Conservation in Vietnam

Balancing biodiversity conservation with land use for agricultural production is a major societal challenge. Conservation activities must be prioritized since funds and resources for conservation are insufficient in the context of current threats, and conservation competes with other societal priorities. In order to contribute to conservation priority-setting literature, we applied an environmental model, Pressure–State–Response (PSR), to develop a set of criteria for identifying priority areas for biodiversity conservation in Vietnam. Our empirical data have been compiled from 185 respondents and categorized into three groups: Governmental Administration and Organizations, Universities and Research Institutions, and Protected Areas. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) theory was used to identify the weight of all criteria. Our results show that the priority levels for biodiversity conservation identified by these three factors are 41% for “Pressure”, 26% for “State”, and 33% for “Response”. Based on these three factors, seven criteria and seventeen indicators were developed to determine priority areas for biodiversity conservation. Besides, our study also reveals that the groups of Governmental Administration and organizations and Protected Areas put a focus on the “Pressure” factor, while the group of Universities and Research Institutions emphasized the importance of the “Response” factor in the evaluation process. We suggest that these criteria and indicators be used to identify priority areas for biodiversity conservation in Vietnam

Evaluate the Interactions between Grassland Ecosystems and Precipitation Anomalies under Changing Grazing Intensity in Central Asia

Long term monitoring of grassland being the largest ecosystem on earth plays an important role in understanding its productivity and transformation (changes) over time. With the availability of remote sensing data, most ecological and environmental problems caused either by human activities such as extensive agriculture, pastoralism which might lead to desertification, land degradation, loss of biodiversity and climate change amongst others can be monitored. For this study, vegetation cover was selected as the main source of examination and subsets of area covered with grasslands were profiled for further monitoring of grassland increasing and decreasing trends in selected areas of Central Asia

Der Aufwand lohnt sich: Erfahrungen mit grenzüberschreitenden Geoinformationssystemen in der Nationalparkregion Sächsisch-Böhmische Schweiz

Ökosysteme und die Lebensräume seltener Tier- und Pflanzenarten machen nicht an Staatsgrenzen halt. Grenzgebiete sind aufgrund ihrer peripheren Lage, dünnen Besiedlung und charakteristischen Naturräume wie Flüsse oder Gebirge oft sogar besonders reich an schützenswerten Landschaften. In grenzüberschreitenden Großschutzgebieten ist es erforderlich, auch die Tätigkeit der Schutzgebietsverwaltungen grenzüberschreitend zu koordinieren, um die Kohärenz der Schutzbemühungen sicherzustellen. In der Nationalparkregion Sächsisch-Böhmische Schweiz sammeln die Verantwortlichen auf deutscher und tschechischer Seite Erfahrung in einem gemeinsamen Projekt

Mixed-effects modeling for analyzing land use change in the Brazilian Pantanal subregion of Cáceres

In this paper, we discuss the use of mixed-effects modeling for analyzing land use change in the Brazilian Pantanal subregion of Cáceres, Mato Grosso State, Brazil. The proposed method, easily extendable to similar case studies, consisted of two steps. First, spatio-temporal data, consisting of Landsat images of the study area from 1993, 1999, 2004, 2009, and 2015, were obtained. The data are polygons with numerical data (year and area) and categorical data (land use and soil type). Second, we analyzed the data using four linear mixed models able to incorporate both the fixed and the random effects underlying the clustered data. The proposed models allowed analyzed complex data structures, such as multilevel data, taking into account particularities of each land use type as a function of the year. The models were fitted to identify land use changes over time. In particular, the point estimate of the random slope in the case of the Pasture class is 0.34, which indicates an increase of about 40% in hectare and the point estimate for the Forest is −0.32, which indicates a decrease of about 27% in hectare in next 5 years.This research was financed by the Mato Grosso State Research Foundation, Brazil (FAPEMAT)

Hang him high: The elevation of Jánošík to an ethnic icon

In this paper, Martin Votruba traces the evolution of the Jánošík myth. The highwayman Jánošík is a living legend in Czech, Polish, and Slovak cultures. Contrary to common claims, the modern celebratory myth of the brigand hanged in the eighteenth century is at odds with the traditional images of brigandage in the western Carpathians. Folk songs and The Hungarian Simplicissimus of the seventeenth century often anathematize highway robbery. High literature of the mostly Slovak counties of the Kingdom of Hungary in the Habsburg empire similarly cast Jánošík as a criminal. Yet some intellectuals, such as Pavol Jozef Šafárik, inspired by the robber in German literature, singled out Jánošík from among other brigands and reduced that folklore-based opprobrium. Others, such as Ján Kollár, resisted Jánošík's rehabilitation. Subsequent Central European national revivals and ethnic activism prompted the Slovak romantic poets to reinvent Jánošík as a folk rebel against social and ethnic oppression

Chapter 4 Geographic information system spatial data structures, models, and case studies

This chapter provides a basic overview of geographic information systems (GISs) as well as a summary of basic concepts encountered with GISs. Specifically, it touches on the various spatial data structures and models used by GISs to represent geographical information. First, general concepts related to information organization and data structure are briefly described and related to the different ways of representing real-world geographical data and information in GISs. Second, different perspectives on information organization are discussed, including different types of spatial relationships processed by GISs as well as the underlying information organization structure within GISs. Finally, the concept of data is investigated, as well as the purpose of databases with respect to GISs, including the various methods of modeling real-world data, relationships, and processes into databases

Hans-Martin Arnoldt / Kirstin Casemir / Christian Hoffmann u.a. (Hrsg.), Die topographisch- militärische Karte des Bistums Hildesheim von 1798: Buchbesprechungen Frühe Neuzeit

Die gegenständliche Veröffentlichung (Textteil als „Beiheft“, Karte als Farbdruck und als Digitalisat auf CD) widmet sich der Beschreibung des Komplexes der herrschaftsgeschichtlichen, geopolitischen und kartographiehistorischen Gemengelage, die das Kondensat für das Entstehen der topographisch-militärischen Karte des Bistums Hildesheim bereitstellte. Ein Fokus wird auf die relevanten biographischhistorischen Komponenten, die mit dem Kartenwerk verbunden sind, gelegt und bezieht sich auf die beiden herausgehobenen Akteure, den Hildesheimer Fürstbischof Franz-Egon von Fürstenberg (1737–1825, S. 25–45) und den Oberstleutnant beim kurhannoverschen Kontingent der preußischen Observationsarmee Gerhard Johann David Scharnhorst (1755–1813, S. 46–59)