Land Cover Change Image Analysis for Assateague Island National Seashore Following Hurricane Sandy

The assessment of storm damages is critically important if resource managers are to understand the impacts of weather pattern changes and sea level rise on their lands and develop management strategies to mitigate its effects. This study was performed to detect land cover change on Assateague Island as a result of Hurricane Sandy. Several single-date classifications were performed on the pre and post hurricane imagery utilized using both a pixel-based and object-based approach with the Random Forest classifier. Univariate image differencing and a post classification comparison were used to conduct the change detection. This study found that the addition of the coastal blue band to the Landsat 8 sensor did not improve classification accuracy and there was also no statistically significant improvement in classification accuracy using Landsat 8 compared to Landsat 5. Furthermore, there was no significant difference found between object-based and pixel-based classification. Change totals were estimated on Assateague Island following Hurricane Sandy and were found to be minimal, occurring predominately in the most active sections of the island in terms of land cover change, however, the post classification detected significantly more change, mainly due to classification errors in the single-date maps used

Optimal land cover mapping and change analysis in northeastern oregon using landsat imagery.

Abstract The necessity for the development of repeatable, efficient, and accurate monitoring of land cover change is paramount to successful management of our planet’s natural resources. This study evaluated a number of remote sensing methods for classifying land cover and land cover change throughout a two-county area in northeastern Oregon (1986 to 2011). In the past three decades, this region has seen significant changes in forest management that have affected land use and land cover. This study employed an accuracy assessment-based empirical approach to test the optimality of a number of advanced digital image processing techniques that have recently emerged in the field of remote sensing. The accuracies are assessed using traditional error matrices, calculated using reference data obtained in the field. We found that, for single-time land cover classification, Bayes pixel-based classification using samples created with scale and shape segmentation parameters of 8 and 0.3, respectively, resulted in the highest overall accuracy. For land cover change detection, using Landsat-5 TM band 7 with a change threshold of 1.75 standard deviations resulted in the highest accuracy for forest harvesting and regeneration mapping

Monitoring Fine-Scale Forest Health Using Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Multispectral Models

Forest disturbances—driven by pests, pathogens, and discrete events—have led to billions of dollars in lost ecosystem services and management costs. To understand the patterns and severity of these stressors across complex landscapes, there must be an increase in reliable data at scales compatible with management actions. Unmanned aerial systems (UAS or UAV) offer a capable platform for collecting local scale (e.g., individual tree) forestry data. In this study, we evaluate the capability of UAS multispectral imagery and freely available National Agricultural Imagery Program (NAIP) imagery for differentiating coniferous healthy, coniferous stressed, deciduous healthy, deciduous stressed, and degraded individual trees throughout a complex, mixed-species forests. These methods are first compared to assessments of crown vigor in the field, to evaluate the potential in supplementing this resource intensive practice. This investigation uses the random forest and support vector machine (SVM) machine learning algorithms to classify the imagery into the five forest health classes. Using the random forest classifier, the UAS imagery correctly classified five forest Health classes with an overall accuracy of 65.43%. Using similar methods, the high-resolution airborne NAIP imagery achieved an overall accuracy of 50.50% for the five health classes, a reduction of 14.93%. When these classes were generalized to healthy, stressed, and degraded trees, the accuracy improved to 71.19%, using UAS imagery, and 70.62%, using airborne imagery. Further analysis into the precise calibration of UAS multispectral imagery, a refinement of image segmentation methods, and the fusion of these data with more widely distributed remotely sensed imagery would further enhance the potential of these methods to more effectively and efficiently collect forest health information from the UAS instead of using field methods

Development of EOS-aided procedures for the determination of the water balance of hydrologic budget of a large watershed

Work focused on the acquisition of remotely sensed data for the 1985 to 1986 hydrogolic year; continuation of the field measurement program; continued acquisition and construction of passive microwave remote sensing instruments; a compilation of data necessary for an initial water balance computation; and participation with the EOS Simulataneity Team in reviewing the Feather River watershed as a possible site for a simultaneity experiment

Modelling Associations between Public Understanding, Engagement and Forest Conditions in the Inland Northwest, USA.

Abstract Opinions about public lands and the actions of private non-industrial forest owners in the western United States play important roles in forested landscape management as both public and private forests face increasing risks from large wildfires, pests and disease. This work presents the responses from two surveys, a random-sample telephone survey of more than 1500 residents and a mail survey targeting owners of parcels with 10 or more acres of forest. These surveys were conducted in three counties (Wallowa, Union, and Baker) in northeast Oregon, USA. We analyze these survey data using structural equation models in order to assess how individual characteristics and understanding of forest management issues affect perceptions about forest conditions and risks associated with declining forest health on public lands. We test whether forest understanding is informed by background, beliefs, and experiences, and whether as an intervening variable it is associated with views about forest conditions on publicly managed forests. Individual background characteristics such as age, gender and county of residence have significant direct or indirect effects on our measurement of understanding. Controlling for background factors, we found that forest owners with higher self-assessed understanding, and more education about forest management, tend to hold more pessimistic views about forest conditions. Based on our results we argue that self-assessed understanding, interest in learning, and willingness to engage in extension activities together have leverage to affect perceptions about the risks posed by declining forest conditions on public lands, influence land owner actions, and affect support for public policies. These results also have broader implications for management of forested landscapes on public and private lands amidst changing demographics in rural communities across the Inland Northwest where migration may significantly alter the composition of forest owner goals, understanding, and support for various management actions

Modeling associations between public understanding, engagement and forest conditions in theInland Northwest, USA

Opinions about public lands and the actions of private non-industrial forest owners in the western United States play important roles in forested landscape management as both public and private forests face increasing risks from large wildfires, pests and disease. This work presents the responses from two surveys, a random-sample telephone survey of more than 1500 residents and a mail survey targeting owners of parcels with 10 or more acres of forest. These surveys were conducted in three counties (Wallowa, Union, and Baker) in northeast Oregon, USA. We analyze these survey data using structural equation models in order to assess how individual characteristics and understanding of forest management issues affect perceptions about forest conditions and risks associated with declining forest health on public lands. We test whether forest understanding is informed by background, beliefs, and experiences, and whether as an intervening variable it is associated with views about forest conditions on publicly managed forests. Individual background characteristics such as age, gender and county of residence have significant direct or indirect effects on our measurement of understanding. Controlling for background factors, we found that forest owners with higher self-assessed understanding, and more education about forest management, tend to hold more pessimistic views about forest conditions. Based on our results we argue that self-assessed understanding, interest in learning, and willingness to engage in extension activities together have leverage to affect perceptions about the risks posed by declining forest conditions on public lands, influence land owner actions, and affect support for public policies. These results also have broader implications for management of forested landscapes on public and private lands amidst changing demographics in rural communities across the Inland Northwest where migration may significantly alter the composition of forest owner goals, understanding, and support for various management actions

Forest views: Northeast Oregon survey looks at community and environment

This brief reports on a survey conducted in fall 2011 as one component of the ongoing Communities and Forests in Oregon (CAFOR) project. The CAFOR project focuses on the people and landscapes of three counties in northeast Oregon (Baker, Union, and Wallowa), where landscapes and communities are changing in interconnected ways

Forest management and wildfire risk in inland northwest

This brief reports the results of a mail survey of forest landowners in northeastern Oregon conducted in the fall of 2012 by the Communities and Forests in Oregon (CAFOR) Project at the University of Colorado and the University of New Hampshire in cooperation with Oregon State University College of Forestry Extension. The mail survey--a follow-up to a telephone survey conducted for the counties of Baker, Union, and Wallowa in the fall of 2011 -was administered to understand who constituted forest landowners in these three coun¬ties and their perceptions about forest management on both public and private land, as well as risks to forests in the area and the actions they have taken to reduce those risks. The respondents indicated that they perceive wildfire as the greatest threat to their lands, and they consider cooperation with neighbors as very or extremely important for land management. Forest landowners believe public lands are managed poorly and see a greater risk of wildfire occurring on neighboring public land than on their own land. Their opinions on land management are not strongly related to background factors or ideology (for example, gender, age, political party, wealth) but may be heavily influenced by personal experience with wildfire

SELECTIVE HABITAT USE BY MOOSE DURING CRITICAL PERIODS IN THE WINTER TICK LIFE CYCLE

High calf mortality attributed to winter tick (Dermacentor albipictus) parasitism occurs in moose (Alces alces) populations along their southern range in the northeastern United States. We analyzed habitat use of cow and calf moose during the critical drop-off and questing periods in the winter tick life cycle to determine a potential relationship between tick density and habitat. We measured habitat use using geospatial analyses of locational data from > 200 radio-marked animals at 3 sites in New Hampshire and Maine. Moose selected for optimal habitat, defined as 4–16 year-old forest openings, regardless of season or site; this was the only land cover type used more than available (1.1–2.1X availability in home range, 1.2–3.1X availability in core range). Further, the proportional availability of optimal habitat within overlapping portions of seasonal home and core ranges exceeded the absolute proportion of optimal habitat within any one range. Temporal use of optimal habitat, which is available in relatively low proportion (15–20%) across the landscape, likely exceeds the geospatial estimates of use because moose spend 30–40% of daily activity foraging. We conclude that disproportionally abundant densities of winter ticks exist in this preferred cover type because of its selective use during the drop-off and questing periods of winter ticks