scholarly journals A Century of Forest Regrowth and Snow Loss Alters the Cooling Effect of Historical Land Use in the Upper Midwest

Ecosystems ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 1056-1074
Author(s):  
Bethany J. Blakely ◽  
Adrian V. Rocha ◽  
Jason S. McLachalan
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Snow Cover ◽  
Forest Canopy ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Cooling Effect ◽  
Forest Regrowth ◽  
Historical Land Use ◽  
Over Time

AbstractAnthropogenic land use affects climate by altering the energy balance of the Earth’s surface. In temperate regions, cooling from increased albedo is a common result of historical land-use change. However, this albedo cooling effect is dependent mainly on the exposure of snow cover following forest canopy removal and may change over time due to simultaneous changes in both land cover and snow cover. In this paper, we combine modern remote sensing data and historical records, incorporating over 100 years of realized land use and climatic change into an empirical assessment of centennial-scale surface forcings in the Upper Midwestern USA. We show that, although increases in surface albedo cooled through strong negative shortwave forcings, those forcings were reduced over time by a combination of forest regrowth and snow-cover loss. Deforestation cooled strongly (− 5.3 Wm−2) and mainly in winter, while composition shift cooled less strongly (− 3.03 Wm−2) and mainly in summer. Combined, changes in albedo due to deforestation, shifts in species composition, and the return of historical forest cover resulted in − 2.81 Wm−2 of regional radiative cooling, 55% less than full deforestation. Forcings due to changing vegetation were further reduced by 0.32 Wm−2 of warming from a shortened snow-covered season and a thinning of seasonal snowpack. Our findings suggest that accounting for long-term changes in land cover and snow cover reduces the estimated cooling impact of deforestation, with implications for long-term land-use planning.

scholarly journals Uncertainty in Historical Land-Use Reconstructions with Topographic Maps

2014 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 55-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominik Kaim ◽  
Jacek Kozak ◽  
Krzysztof Ostafin ◽  
Monika Dobosz ◽  
Katarzyna Ostapowicz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Reliability Assessment ◽  
Swiss Alps ◽  
Topographic Maps ◽  
Forest Cover Change ◽  
Change Analysis ◽  
Polish Carpathians ◽  
Historical Land Use

Abstract The paper presents the outcomes of the uncertainty investigation of a long-term forest cover change analysis in the Polish Carpathians (nearly 20,000 km2) and Swiss Alps (nearly 10,000 km2) based on topographic maps. Following Leyk et al. (2005) all possible uncertainties are grouped into three domains - production-oriented, transformation- oriented and application-oriented. We show typical examples for each uncertainty domain, encountered during the forest cover change analysis and discuss consequences for change detection. Finally, a proposal for reliability assessment is presented.

scholarly journals The Influence of Rainfall and Land Use/Land Cover Changes on River Discharge Variability in the Mountainous Catchment of the Bagmati River

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 2444 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dinesh Tuladhar ◽  
Ashraf Dewan ◽  
Michael Kuhn ◽  
Robert J. Corner
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
River Discharge ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Strong Association ◽  
Land Use Land Cover ◽  
Discharge Data ◽  
Bagmati River

Changes in rainfall and land use/land cover (LULC) can influence river discharge from a catchment in many ways. Homogenized river discharge data from three stations and average rainfall records, interpolated from 13 stations, were examined for long-term trends and decadal variations (1970–2017) in the headwater, upper and middle catchments of the Bagmati River. LULC changes over five decades were quantified using multitemporal Landsat images. Mann–Kendall tests on annual time series showed a significant decrease in river discharge (0.61% per year) from the entire Bagmati catchment, although the decrease in rainfall was statistically insignificant. However, declines in river discharge and rainfall were both significant in upper catchment. Decadal departures from long-term means support these trend results. Over tenfold growth in urban area and a decrease in agricultural land were observed in the upper catchment, while forest cover slightly increased in the entire catchment between 1975 and 2015. Correlation analysis showed a strong association between surface runoff, estimated using the curve number method, observed river discharge and rainfall in the upper catchment, while the relationship was weaker in the headwater catchment. These results were also supported by multiple regression analysis, suggesting that human activities together with climate change have contributed to river discharge changes in the Bagmati catchment.

scholarly journals Assessment of land use cover changes, carbon sequestration and carbon stock in dry temperate forests of Chilas watershed, Gilgit-Baltistan

2024 ◽  
Vol 84 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Raqeeb ◽  
A. Saleem ◽  
L. Ansari ◽  
S. M. Nazami ◽  
M. W. Muhammad ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Carbon Sequestration ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Snow Cover ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Carbon Stocks ◽  
Tree Density ◽  
C Stocks ◽  
Gilgit Baltistan

Abstract Land use and land cover change are affecting the global environment and ecosystems of the different biospheres. Monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) of these changes is of utmost importance as they often results in several global environmental consequences such as land degradation, mass erosion, habitat deterioration as well as micro and macro climate of the regions. The advance technologies like remote sensing (RS) and geographical information system (GIS) are helpful in determining/ identifying these changes. In the current study area, changes in carbon stocks, notably in forest areas, are resulting in considerable dynamics of carbon stocks as a result of climate change and carbon sequestration. This study was carried out in the Diamer district of the Gilgit Baltistan (GB) Pakistan to investigate the change in cover change/land use change (particularly Forest Land use) as well as carbon sequestration potential of the forests in the district during almost last 25years. The land cover, temporal Landsat data (level 1, LIT) were downloaded from the USGS EROS (2016), for 1979-1989, 1990-2000 and 2001-2012. Change in land uses, particularly forest cover was investigated using GIS techniques. Forest inventory was carried out using random sampling techniques. A standard plot of size 0.1 ha (n=80) was laid out to determine the tree density, volume, biomass and C stocks. Simulation of C stocks was accomplished by application of the CO2FIX model with the data input from inventory. Results showed a decrease in both forest and snow cover in the region from 1979-2012. Similarly decrease was seen in tree volume, tree Biomass, dynamics of C Stocks and decrease was in occur tree density respectively. It is recommended we need further more like project such as BTAP (Billion Tree Afforestation Project) and green Pakistan project to increase the forest cover, to control on land use change, protect forest ecosystem and to protect snow cover.

scholarly journals Soil erosion by snow gliding – a first quantification attempt in a subalpine area in Switzerland

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (9) ◽  
pp. 3763-3775 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Meusburger ◽  
G. Leitinger ◽  
L. Mabit ◽  
M. H. Mueller ◽  
A. Walter ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Soil Erosion ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Sediment Yield ◽  
Soil Loss ◽  
Water Erosion ◽  
Erosion Rates ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Snow Gliding

Abstract. Snow processes might be one important driver of soil erosion in Alpine grasslands and thus the unknown variable when erosion modelling is attempted. The aim of this study is to assess the importance of snow gliding as a soil erosion agent for four different land use/land cover types in a subalpine area in Switzerland. We used three different approaches to estimate soil erosion rates: sediment yield measurements in snow glide depositions, the fallout radionuclide 137Cs and modelling with the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE). RUSLE permits the evaluation of soil loss by water erosion, the 137Cs method integrates soil loss due to all erosion agents involved, and the measurement of snow glide deposition sediment yield can be directly related to snow-glide-induced erosion. Further, cumulative snow glide distance was measured for the sites in the winter of 2009/2010 and modelled for the surrounding area and long-term average winter precipitation (1959–2010) with the spatial snow glide model (SSGM). Measured snow glide distance confirmed the presence of snow gliding and ranged from 2 to 189 cm, with lower values on the north-facing slopes. We observed a reduction of snow glide distance with increasing surface roughness of the vegetation, which is an important information with respect to conservation planning and expected and ongoing land use changes in the Alps. Snow glide erosion estimated from the snow glide depositions was highly variable with values ranging from 0.03 to 22.9 t ha−1 yr−1 in the winter of 2012/2013. For sites affected by snow glide deposition, a mean erosion rate of 8.4 t ha−1 yr−1 was found. The difference in long-term erosion rates determined with RUSLE and 137Cs confirms the constant influence of snow-glide-induced erosion, since a large difference (lower proportion of water erosion compared to total net erosion) was observed for sites with high snow glide rates and vice versa. Moreover, the difference between RUSLE and 137Cs erosion rates was related to the measured snow glide distance (R2 = 0.64; p < 0.005) and to the snow deposition sediment yields (R2 = 0.39; p = 0.13). The SSGM reproduced the relative difference of the measured snow glide values under different land uses and land cover types. The resulting map highlighted the relevance of snow gliding for large parts of the investigated area. Based on these results, we conclude that snow gliding appears to be a crucial and non-negligible process impacting soil erosion patterns and magnitude in subalpine areas with similar topographic and climatic conditions.

scholarly journals Investigating impact of land-use and land cover changes on hydro-ecological balance using GIS: insights from IIT Bombay, India

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aman Srivastava ◽  
Pennan Chinnasamy
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Surface Runoff ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Google Earth ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Ecological Stability ◽  
Barren Land ◽  
Ecological Balance ◽  
Lulc Changes

AbstractThe present study, for the first time, examined land-use land cover (LULC), changes using GIS, between 2000 and 2018 for the IIT Bombay campus, India. Objective was to evaluate hydro-ecological balance inside campus by determining spatio-temporal disparity between hydrological parameters (rainfall-runoff processes), ecological components (forest, vegetation, lake, barren land), and anthropogenic stressors (urbanization and encroachments). High-resolution satellite imageries were generated for the campus using Google Earth Pro, by manual supervised classification method. Rainfall patterns were studied using secondary data sources, and surface runoff was estimated using SCS-CN method. Additionally, reconnaissance surveys, ground-truthing, and qualitative investigations were conducted to validate LULC changes and hydro-ecological stability. LULC of 2018 showed forest, having an area cover of 52%, as the most dominating land use followed by built-up (43%). Results indicated that the area under built-up increased by 40% and playground by 7%. Despite rapid construction activities, forest cover and Powai lake remained unaffected. This anomaly was attributed to the drastically declining barren land area (up to ~ 98%) encompassing additional construction activities. Sustainability of the campus was demonstrated with appropriate measures undertaken to mitigate negative consequences of unwarranted floods owing to the rise of 6% in the forest cover and a decline of 21% in water hyacinth cover over Powai lake. Due to this, surface runoff (~ 61% of the rainfall) was observed approximately consistent and being managed appropriately despite major alterations in the LULC. Study concluded that systematic campus design with effective implementation of green initiatives can maintain a hydro-ecological balance without distressing the environmental services.

scholarly journals Cropland Abandonment in Slovakia: Analysis and Comparison of Different Data Sources

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 334
Author(s):  
Juraj Lieskovský ◽  
Dana Lieskovská
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Spatial Data ◽  
Data Sources ◽  
Communist Regime ◽  
Corine Land Cover ◽  
Cropland Area ◽  
Cropland Abandonment ◽  
Multi Temporal

This study compares different nationwide multi-temporal spatial data sources and analyzes the cropland area, cropland abandonment rates and transformation of cropland to other land cover/land use categories in Slovakia. Four multi-temporal land cover/land use data sources were used: The Historic Land Dynamics Assessment (HILDA), the Carpathian Historical Land Use Dataset (CHLUD), CORINE Land Cover (CLC) data and Landsat images classification. We hypothesized that because of the different spatial, temporal and thematic resolution of the datasets, there would be differences in the resulting cropland abandonment rates. We validated the datasets, compared the differences, interpreted the results and combined the information from the different datasets to form an overall picture of long-term cropland abandonment in Slovakia. The cropland area increased until the Second World War, but then decreased after transition to the communist regime and sharply declined following the 1989 transition to an open market economy. A total of 49% of cropland area has been transformed to grassland, 34% to forest and 15% to urban areas. The Historical Carpathian dataset is the more reliable long-term dataset, and it records 19.65 km2/year average cropland abandonment for 1836–1937, 154.44 km2/year for 1938–1955 and 140.21 km2/year for 1956–2012. In comparison, the Landsat, as a recent data source, records 142.02 km2/year abandonment for 1985–2000 and 89.42 km2/year for 2000–2010. These rates, however, would be higher if the dataset contained urbanisation data and more precise information on afforestation. The CORINE Land Cover reflects changes larger than 5 ha, and therefore the reported cropland abandonment rates are lower.

scholarly journals Long-term effects of land use/land cover change on surface runoff in urban areas of Beijing, China

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 084596 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhongchang Sun ◽  
Xinwu Li ◽  
Wenxue Fu ◽  
Yingkui Li ◽  
Dongsheng Tang
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Land Cover Change ◽  
Surface Runoff ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Land Use Land Cover ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Effects Of Land Use ◽  
Beijing China

scholarly journals Qualifying Land Use and Land Cover Dynamics and Their Impacts on Ecosystem Service in Central Himalaya Transboundary Landscape Based on Google Earth Engine

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 173
Author(s):  
Changjun Gu ◽  
Yili Zhang ◽  
Linshan Liu ◽  
Lanhui Li ◽  
Shicheng Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Ecosystem Service ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Google Earth ◽  
Forest Cover Change ◽  
Sacred Landscape ◽  
Lulc Changes ◽  
Google Earth Engine

Land use and land cover (LULC) changes are regarded as one of the key drivers of ecosystem services degradation, especially in mountain regions where they may provide various ecosystem services to local livelihoods and surrounding areas. Additionally, ecosystems and habitats extend across political boundaries, causing more difficulties for ecosystem conservation. LULC in the Kailash Sacred Landscape (KSL) has undergone obvious changes over the past four decades; however, the spatiotemporal changes of the LULC across the whole of the KSL are still unclear, as well as the effects of LULC changes on ecosystem service values (ESVs). Thus, in this study we analyzed LULC changes across the whole of the KSL between 2000 and 2015 using Google Earth Engine (GEE) and quantified their impacts on ESVs. The greatest loss in LULC was found in forest cover, which decreased from 5443.20 km2 in 2000 to 5003.37 km2 in 2015 and which mainly occurred in KSL-Nepal. Meanwhile, the largest growth was observed in grassland (increased by 548.46 km2), followed by cropland (increased by 346.90 km2), both of which mainly occurred in KSL-Nepal. Further analysis showed that the expansions of cropland were the major drivers of the forest cover change in the KSL. Furthermore, the conversion of cropland to shrub land indicated that farmland abandonment existed in the KSL during the study period. The observed forest degradation directly influenced the ESV changes in the KSL. The total ESVs in the KSL decreased from 36.53 × 108 USD y−1 in 2000 to 35.35 × 108 USD y−1 in 2015. Meanwhile, the ESVs of the forestry areas decreased by 1.34 × 108 USD y−1. This shows that the decrease of ESVs in forestry was the primary cause to the loss of total ESVs and also of the high elasticity. Our findings show that even small changes to the LULC, especially in forestry areas, are noteworthy as they could induce a strong ESV response.

scholarly journals Assessment of land cover on soil erosion in Lam Phra Phloeng watershed by USLE model

2018 ◽  
Vol 192 ◽  
pp. 02017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jatuwat Wattanasetpong ◽  
Uma Seeboonruang ◽  
Uba Sirikaew ◽  
Walter Chen
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Soil Erosion ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Soil Loss ◽  
Land Development ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Surface Erosion ◽  
Agricultural Field ◽  
Land Cover Data

Soil loss due to surface erosion has been a global problem not just for developing countries but also for developed countries. One of the factors that have greatest impact on soil erosion is land cover. The purpose of this study is to estimate the long-term average annual soil erosion in the Lam Phra Phloeng watershed, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand with different source of land cover by using the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) and GIS (30 m grid cells) to calculate the six erosion factors (R, K, L, S, C, and P) of USLE. Land use data are from Land Development Department (LDD) and ESA Climate Change Initiative (ESA/CCI) in 2015. The result of this study show that mean soil erosion by using land cover from ESA/CCI is less than LDD (29.16 and 64.29 ton/ha/year respectively) because soil erosion mostly occurred in the agricultural field and LDD is a local department that survey land use in Thailand thus land cover data from this department have more details than ESA/CCI.

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