Representative Landscapes in the Forested Area of Canada

Canada is a large nation with forested ecosystems that occupy over 60% of the national land base, and knowledge of the patterns of Canada’s land cover is important to proper environmental management of this vast resource. To this end, a circa 2000 Landsat-derived land cover map of the forested ecosystems of Canada has created a new window into understanding the composition and configuration of land cover patterns in forested Canada. Strategies for summarizing such large expanses of land cover are increasingly important, as land managers work to study and preserve distinctive areas, as well as to identify representative examples of current land-cover and land-use assemblages. Meanwhile, the development of extremely efficient clustering algorithms has become increasingly important in the world of computer science, in which billions of pieces of information on the internet are continually sifted for meaning for a vast variety of applications. One recently developed clustering algorithm quickly groups large numbers of items of any type in a given data set while simultaneously selecting a representative—or “exemplar”—from each cluster. In this context, the availability of both advanced data processing methods and a nationally available set of landscape metrics presents an opportunity to identify sets of representative landscapes to better understand landscape pattern, variation, and distribution across the forested area of Canada. In this research, we first identify and provide context for a small, interpretable set of exemplar landscapes that objectively represent land cover in each of Canada’s ten forested ecozones. Then, we demonstrate how this approach can be used to identify flagship and satellite long-term study areas inside and outside protected areas in the province of Ontario. These applications aid our understanding of Canada’s forest while augmenting its management toolbox, and may signal a broad range of applications for this versatile approach

Forest fragmentation in Massachusetts, USA: a town-level assessment using Morphological spatial pattern analysis and affinity propagation

Forest fragmentation has been studied extensively with respect to biodiversity loss, disruption of ecosystem services, and edge effects although the relationship between forest fragmentation and human activities is still not well understood. We classified the pattern of forests in Massachusetts using fragmentation indicators to address these objectives: 1) characterize the spatial pattern of forest fragmentation in Massachusetts towns using Morphological Spatial Pattern Analysis (MSPA); and (2) identify regional trends using archetypal towns in relation to town history, geography and socioeconomic characteristics. Six fragmentation indicators were calculated using MSPA for each town to represent patterns and processes of fragmentation. We then used these indicators and the proportion of forested land to group towns across Massachusetts with similar patterns of fragmentation. Six representative towns typify different types of forest fragmentation, and illustrate the commonalities and differences between different fragmentation types. The objective selection of representative towns suggests that they might be used as the target of future studies, both in retrospective studies that seek to explain current patterns and in analyses that predict future fragmentation trends

Combining remote sensing and household level data for regional scale analysis of land cover change in the Brazilian Amazon

Land cover change in the Brazilian Amazon depends on the spatial variability of political, socioeconomic and biophysical factors, as well as on the land use history and its actors. A regional scale analysis was made in Rondônia State to identify possible differences in land cover change connected to spatial policies of land occupation, size and year of establishment of properties, accessibility measures and soil fertility. The analysis was made based on remote sensing data and household level data gathered with a questionnaire. Both types of analyses indicate that the highest level of total deforestation is found inside agrarian projects, especially in those established more than 20 years ago. Even though deforestation rates are similar inside and outside official settlements, inside agrarian projects forest depletion can exceed 50% at the property level within 10–14 years after establishment. The data indicate that both small-scale and medium to large-scale farmers contribute to deforestation processes in Rondônia State encouraged by spatial policies of land occupation, which provide better accessibility to forest fringes where soil fertility and forest resources are important determinants of location choic

Landscape changes in a coastal system undergoing tourism development: Implications for Barra de Navidad Lagoon, Jalisco, Mexico

In this study, changes in land cover and land use patterns that occurred between 1985 and 2000 in the surrounding basin of the Barra de Navidad coastal lagoon in Jalisco, Mexico are quantified and explained. Two satellite images from 1985 (Landsat TM) and 2000 (Landsat ETM+) were analyzed with supervised classification and ground truthing to evaluate changes in six land use/cover categories: lagoon, agriculture, urban/tourist, tropical dry forest, mangrove and bare substratum. Changes in land use composition were evaluated using a transition matrix and changes to configuration were interpreted using landscape metrics. Results show that urban and tourist areas expanded between 1985 and 2000, mostly at the expense of forested and bare land. Mangroves showed a large relative decrease in area (-39%) and experienced fragmentation. These changes appear to be related to increased sedimentation a fan progradation into Barra de Navidad lagoon. These results may serve as a model for comparison in other systems experiencing multiple stressors, especially changes related to tourism and the intensification of resource extraction

Landscape changes in a coastal system undergoing tourism development: Implications for Barra de Navidad Lagoon, Jalisco, Mexico

In this study, changes in land cover and land use patterns that occurred between 1985 and 2000 in the surrounding basin of the Barra de Navidad coastal lagoon in Jalisco, Mexico are quantified and explained. Two satellite images from 1985 (Landsat TM) and 2000 (Landsat ETM+) were analyzed with supervised classification and ground truthing to evaluate changes in six land use/cover categories: lagoon, agriculture, urban/tourist, tropical dry forest, mangrove and bare substratum. Changes in land use composition were evaluated using a transition matrix and changes to configuration were interpreted using landscape metrics. Results show that urban and tourist areas expanded between 1985 and 2000, mostly at the expense of forested and bare land. Mangroves showed a large relative decrease in area (-39%) and experienced fragmentation. These changes appear to be related to increased sedimentation a fan progradation into Barra de Navidad lagoon. These results may serve as a model for comparison in other systems experiencing multiple stressors, especially changes related to tourism and the intensification of resource extraction