Global assessment and mapping of changes in mesoscale landscapes: 1992–2015

Autor: Pawel Netzel, Jakub Nowosad, Tomasz F. Stepinski
Rok vydání: 2019
Předmět:
bepress|Physical Sciences and Mathematics
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
EarthArXiv|Physical Sciences and Mathematics|Environmental Sciences
0211 other engineering and technologies
Mesoscale meteorology
bepress|Physical Sciences and Mathematics|Earth Sciences
Magnitude (mathematics)
02 engineering and technology
Land cover
bepress|Physical Sciences and Mathematics|Statistics and Probability|Longitudinal Data Analysis and Time Series
EarthArXiv|Physical Sciences and Mathematics|Earth Sciences
Management
Monitoring
Policy and Law

01 natural sciences
EarthArXiv|Physical Sciences and Mathematics|Statistics and Probability|Categorical Data Analysis
EarthArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Geography
bepress|Physical Sciences and Mathematics|Statistics and Probability|Categorical Data Analysis
EarthArXiv|Physical Sciences and Mathematics|Statistics and Probability|Longitudinal Data Analysis and Time Series
bepress|Physical Sciences and Mathematics|Environmental Sciences
EarthArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences
Computers in Earth Sciences
021101 geological & geomatics engineering
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Earth-Surface Processes
EarthArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Geography|Geographic Information Sciences
EarthArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Geography|Spatial Science
Global and Planetary Change
bepress|Physical Sciences and Mathematics|Computer Sciences
EarthArXiv|Physical Sciences and Mathematics|Computer Sciences
bepress|Physical Sciences and Mathematics|Computer Sciences|Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing
bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Geography|Spatial Science
bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Geography
Dymaxion map
EarthArXiv|Physical Sciences and Mathematics
EarthArXiv|Physical Sciences and Mathematics|Statistics and Probability
Environmental studies
Thematic map
Geography
bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences
EarthArXiv|Physical Sciences and Mathematics|Computer Sciences|Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing
bepress|Physical Sciences and Mathematics|Statistics and Probability
Physical geography
Landscape ecology
Scale (map)
bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Geography|Geographic Information Sciences
Zdroj: International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation. 78:332-340
ISSN: 1569-8432
Popis: Monitoring global land cover changes is important because of concerns about their impact on environment and climate. The release by the European Space Agency (ESA) of a set of worldwide annual land cover maps covering the 1992–2015 period makes possible a quantitative assessment of land change on the global scale. While ESA land cover mapping effort was motivated by the need to better characterize global and regional carbon cycles, the dataset may benefit a broad range of disciplines. To facilitate utilization of ESA maps for broad-scale problems in landscape ecology and environmental studies, we have constructed a GIS-based vector database of mesoscale landscapes – patterns of land cover categories in 9 km × 9 km tracts of land. First, we reprojected ESA maps to the Fuller projection to assure that each landscape in the database has approximately the same size and shape so the patterns of landscapes at different locations can be compared. Second, we calculated landscape attributes including its compositions in 1992 and 2015, magnitude of pattern change, categories transition matrix for detailed characterization of change, fractional abundances of plant functional types (PFTs) in 1992 and 2015, and change trend type – a simple, overall descriptor of the character of landscape change. Combining change trends and change magnitude information we constructed a global, thematic map of land change; this map offers a visualization of what, where, and to what degree has changed between 1992 and 2015. The database is SQL searchable and supports all GIS vector operations. Using change magnitude attribute we calculated that only 22% of total landmass experienced significant landscape change during the 1992–2015 period, but that change zone accounted for 80% of all pixel-based transitions. Dominant land cover transitions were forest → agriculture followed by agriculture → forest. Using PFTs attributes to calculate global aggregation of gross and net changes for major PFTs yielded results in agreement with other recent estimates.
Databáze: OpenAIRE