A new methodology to map irrigated areas using multi-temporal MODIS and ancillary data: An application example in the continental US

We present a dryland irrigation mapping methodology that relies on remotely sensed inputs from the MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument, globally extensive ancillary sources of gridded climate and agricultural data and on an advanced image classification algorithm. The methodology involves four steps. First, we use climate-based indices of surface moisture status and a map of cultivated areas to generate a potential irrigation index. Next, we identify remotely-sensed temporal and spectral signatures that are associated with presence of irrigation defined as full or partial artificial application of water to agricultural areas under dryland conditions excluding irrigated pastures, paddy rice fields, and other semi-aquatic crops. Here, the temporal indices are based on the difference in annual evolution of greenness between irrigated and non-irrigated crops, while spectral indices are based on the reflectance in the green and are sensitive to vegetation chlorophyll content associated with moisture stress. Third, we combine the climate-based potential irrigation index, remotely sensed indices, and learning samples within a decision tree supervised classification tool to make a binary irrigated/non-irrigated map. Finally, we apply a tree-based regression algorithm to derive the fraction of irrigated area within each pixel that has been identified as irrigated. Application of the proposed procedure over the continental US in the year 2001 produces an objective and comprehensive map that exhibits expected patterns: there is a strong east-west divide where the majority of irrigated areas is concentrated in the arid west along dry lowland valleys. Qualitative assessment of the map across different climatic and agricultural zones reveals a high quality product with sufficient detail when compared to existing large area irrigation databases. Accuracy assessment indicates that the map is highly accurate in the western US but less accurate in the east. Comparison of area estimates made with the new procedure to those reported at the state and county levels shows a strong correlation with a small bias and an estimated RMSE of 2500 km2, or little over 2% of the total irrigated area in the US. As a result, the future application of the new procedure at a global scale is promising but may require a better potential irrigation index, as well as the use of remotely sensed skin temperature measurements

Urbanization and sustainability under transitional economies:a synthesis for Asian Russia

Spanning a vast territory of approximately 13 million km ^2 , Asian Russia was home to 38 million people in 2016. In an effort to synthesize data and knowledge regarding urbanization and sustainable development in Asian Russia in the context of socioeconomic transformation following the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1990, we quantified the spatiotemporal changes of urban dynamics using satellite imagery and explored the interrelationships between urbanization and sustainability. We then developed a sustainability index, complemented with structural equation modeling, for a comprehensive analysis of their dynamics. We chose six case cities, i.e., Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Omsk, Irkutsk, and Khabarovsk, as representatives of large cities to investigate whether large cities are in sync with the region in terms of population dynamics, urbanization, and sustainability. Our major findings include the following. First, Asian Russia experienced enhanced economic growth despite the declining population. Furthermore, our case cities showed a general positive trend for population dynamics and urbanization as all except Irkutsk experienced population increases and all expanded their urban built-up areas, ranging from 13% to 16% from 1990 to 2014. Second, Asian Russia and its three federal districts have improved their sustainability and levels of economic development, environmental conditions, and social development. Although both regional sustainability and economic development experienced a serious dip in the 1990s, environmental conditions and social development continuously improved from 1990 to 2014, with social development particularly improving after 1995. Third, in terms of the relationships between urbanization and sustainability, economic development appeared as an important driver of urbanization, social development, and environmental degradation in Asian Russia, with economic development having a stronger influence on urbanization than on social development or environmental degradation

Northern Eurasia Future Initiative (NEFI): facing the challenges and pathways of global change in the twenty-first century

During the past several decades, the Earth system has changed significantly, especially across Northern Eurasia. Changes in the socio-economic conditions of the larger countries in the region have also resulted in a variety of regional environmental changes that can have global consequences. The Northern Eurasia Future Initiative (NEFI) has been designed as an essential continuation of the Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative (NEESPI), which was launched in 2004. NEESPI sought to elucidate all aspects of ongoing environmental change, to inform societies and, thus, to better prepare societies for future developments. A key principle of NEFI is that these developments must now be secured through science-based strategies co-designed with regional decision-makers to lead their societies to prosperity in the face of environmental and institutional challenges. NEESPI scientific research, data, and models have created a solid knowledge base to support the NEFI program. This paper presents the NEFI research vision consensus based on that knowledge. It provides the reader with samples of recent accomplishments in regional studies and formulates new NEFI science questions. To address these questions, nine research foci are identified and their selections are briefly justified. These foci include warming of the Arctic; changing frequency, pattern, and intensity of extreme and inclement environmental conditions; retreat of the cryosphere; changes in terrestrial water cycles; changes in the biosphere; pressures on land use; changes in infrastructure; societal actions in response to environmental change; and quantification of Northern Eurasia’s role in the global Earth system. Powerful feedbacks between the Earth and human systems in Northern Eurasia (e.g., mega-fires, droughts, depletion of the cryosphere essential for water supply, retreat of sea ice) result from past and current human activities (e.g., large-scale water withdrawals, land use, and governance change) and potentially restrict or provide new opportunities for future human activities. Therefore, we propose that integrated assessment models are needed as the final stage of global change assessment. The overarching goal of this NEFI modeling effort will enable evaluation of economic decisions in response to changing environmental conditions and justification of mitigation and adaptation efforts

Northern Eurasia Future Initiative (NEFI): Facing the Challenges and Pathways of Global Change in the Twenty-first Century

During the past several decades, the Earth system has changed significantly, especially across Northern Eurasia. Changes in the socio-economic conditions of the larger countries in the region have also resulted in a variety of regional environmental changes that can have global consequences. The Northern Eurasia Future Initiative (NEFI) has been designed as an essential continuation of the Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative (NEESPI), which was launched in 2004. NEESPI sought to elucidate all aspects of ongoing environmental change, to inform societies and, thus, to better prepare societies for future developments. A key principle of NEFI is that these developments must now be secured through science-based strategies codesigned with regional decision-makers to lead their societies to prosperity in the face of environmental and institutional challenges. NEESPI scientific research, data, and models have created a solid knowledge base to support the NEFI program. This paper presents the NEFI research vision consensus based on that knowledge. It provides the reader with samples of recent accomplishments in regional studies and formulates new NEFI science questions. To address these questions, nine research foci are identified and their selections are briefly justified. These foci include warming of the Arctic; changing frequency, pattern, and intensity of extreme and inclement environmental conditions; retreat of the cryosphere; changes in terrestrial water cycles; changes in the biosphere; pressures on land use; changes in infrastructure; societal actions in response to environmental change; and quantification of Northern Eurasia’s role in the global Earth system. Powerful feedbacks between the Earth and human systems in Northern Eurasia (e.g., mega-fires, droughts, depletion of the cryosphere essential for water supply, retreat of sea ice) result from past and current human activities (e.g., large-scale water withdrawals, land use, and governance change) and potentially restrict or provide new opportunities for future human activities. Therefore, we propose that integrated assessment models are needed as the final stage of global change assessment. The overarching goal of this NEFI modeling effort will enable evaluation of economic decisions in response to changing environmental conditions and justification of mitigation and adaptation efforts

Prospects for the sustainability of social-ecological systems (SES) on the Mongolian plateau: five critical issues

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The NASA Land-Cover/Land-Use Change (LCLUC) Program’s Support of the Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative (NEESPI): Focus on Non-boreal Europe

Currently, the Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative (NEESPI) includes over 120 international projects involving more than 200 scientific institutions from over 30 countries. The program involves national government agencies, academia and private organizations in the U.S., Europe, Japan and Northern Eurasia (Gutman 2007). The NEESPI science is directed at evaluating the role of anthropogenic impacts on the Northern Eurasia ecosystems, the hemispheric-scale interaction and assessing how future human actions would affect the global climate and ecosystems of the region. Projections of the consequences of global changes for regional environment in Northern Eurasia are also in the center of the scientific foci of this initiative. The Land-Cover/Land-Use Change (LCLUC) Program is an interdisciplinary science program in the Earth Science Division of the Science Mission Directorate supporting several regional initiatives, including NEESPI. The NASA LCLUC currently funds over 30 NEESPI projects. The NEESPI program links to several international projects, such as GLP, iLEAPS and others, under major international programs: IGBP and WCRP. The NEESPI covers a large geographic domain, which includes the former Soviet Union, northern China, Mongolia, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. This contribution provides a short description of the ongoing NEESPI studies in the non-boreal European sub-region of the NEESPI geographic domain that are supported by the NASA LCLUC program. More information on the projects can be found at http://neespi.org and http://lcluc.hq.nasa.gov

Contribution of the NASA Land-Cover/Land-Use Change Program to the Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative: An overview

The Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative (NEESPI) is a rapidly growing program that involves national government agencies, academia and private organizations in the U.S., Europe, Japan and Northern Eurasia. During the last decade the Northern Eurasian region have been undergoing socioeconomic, climatic and demographic changes. The causes of these changes, the associated interactions between the land surface, the atmosphere and the surrounding ocean and the resultant impact on the sustainability of land use of the region are important topics for scientific research. The NEESPI Science Plan has been prepared as an integrated regional study to better understand these hemispheric-scale interactions, to evaluate the combined role of climate and anthropogenic impacts on the Northern Eurasia ecosystems, and to assess how future human actions would affect the global climate and ecosystems of the region. Projections of the consequence of global changes on the regional environment, the economy and the quality of life in Northern Eurasia that is of primary importance to the nations in the region is an additional focus of this initiative. The NASA Land-Cover/Land-Use Change (LCLUC) Program has supported NEESPI since its inception, and currently funds 26 NEESPI projects. Several other NASA programs are also currently supporting or planning to support the NEESPI. The NEESPI program links to the major international programs under the Earth System Science Partnership (IGBP, IHDP, DIVERSITAS and WCRP) and under the Global Terrestrial Observing System, such as the Global Observation of Forest Cover/Global Observation of Landcover Dynamics (GOFC/GOLD). A number of the NEESPI science activities are aligned with the Global Earth System of Systems (GEOSS) objectives, giving an emphasis to societal benefits, so that the NEESPI framework can serve as a regional test bed for international cooperation in developing a system of observational systems. Since it is a new program, most of the NEESPI research projects have just started. Therefore, rather than describing these projects this paper focuses on presenting some results of the longer term projects which are being continued under NEESPI, and on the expected products from the program and its future directions. More information on the projects can be found at http://neespi.org or http://lcluc.hq.nasa.gov

On Production of Continuous Spatio-Temporal Fields of AVHRR- and MODIS-Derived Biogeophysical Variables

this paper, I am raising the issue of missing data treatment in producing continuous spatio-temporal fields of biogeophysical variables from AVHRR and MODIS or MODIS-like sensor data. Climate and numerical forecast models that use surface variables require that input fields be continuous in time and space (e.g. Gutman, 1990). However, quite often the datasets produced for use in the models have missing data because of instrument-induced data gaps or because of severe atmospheric contamination in the radiances, which render data hardly applicable in further geophysical applications. In this brief note, I attempt to draw attention to the issues that are, to my knowledge, not discussed in the remote sensing users community. Note that the commonly used procedures continue to be used in delivering satellite products that are certainly useful in many applications but often have little or no quality control at the users en