Qualifying Land Use and Land Cover Dynamics and Their Impacts on Ecosystem Service in Central Himalaya Transboundary Landscape Based on 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.

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

SN Applied Sciences ◽

10.1007/s42452-021-04328-7 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 3 (3) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

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.

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Ecosystem Service Values Changes in Response to Land-Use/Land-Cover Dynamics in Dry Afromontane Forest in Northern Ethiopia

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph16234653 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 16 (23) ◽

pp. 4653 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Negasi Solomon ◽

Alcade C. Segnon ◽

Emiru Birhane

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Ecosystem Services ◽

Land Cover ◽

Ecosystem Service ◽

Forest Cover ◽

Northern Ethiopia ◽

Land Use Land Cover ◽

Afromontane Forest ◽

Land Cover Dynamics ◽

Dry Afromontane Forest

Despite their importance as sources of ecosystem services supporting the livelihoods of millions of people, forest ecosystems have been changing into other land use systems over the past decades across the world. While forest cover change dynamics have been widely documented in various ecological systems, how these changes affect ecosystem service values has received limited attention. In this study we assessed the impact of land-use/land-cover dynamics on ecosystem service values in dry Afromontane forest in Northern Ethiopia. We estimated ecosystem service values and their changes based on the benefit transfer method using land cover data of the years 1985, 2000, and 2016 with their corresponding locally valid value coefficients and from the Ecosystem service valuation database. The total ecosystem service values of the whole study area were about USD 16.6, 19.0, and 18.1 million in 1985, 2000, and 2016, respectively. The analyses indicated an increase in ecosystem service values from 1985 to 2000 and a decrease in ecosystem service values from 2000 to 2016. Similarly, the contribution of specific ecosystem services increased in the first study period and decreased in the second study period. The findings highlight how forest cover dynamics can be translated into changes in ecosystem service values in dry Afromontane forest ecosystems in Northern Ethiopia and showed how specific ecosystem services contributed to the observed trends. The findings also illustrated the temporal heterogeneity in the impacts of land-use/land-cover dynamics on values of ecosystem services. The findings can serve as crucial inputs for policy and strategy formulations for the sustainable use and management of forest resources and can also guide the allocation of limited resources among competing demands to safeguard the ecosystems that offer the best-valued services.

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Land Use Change and Urban Ecosystem Services: A Case Study of Urban Wetlands in a Rapidly Sprawling City in the Highlands of Chiapas, Mexico

Journal of Management and Sustainability ◽

10.5539/jms.v9n1p67 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 67

Author(s):

Vera Camacho-Valdez ◽

Eva M. Tello-Alcaide ◽

Allen Wootton ◽

Emmanuel Valencia-Barrera

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Ecosystem Services ◽

Land Cover ◽

Ecosystem Service ◽

Google Earth ◽

Land Use Land Cover ◽

Urban Wetlands ◽

Rapid Urbanization ◽

Wide Range ◽

The Impact

Urban wetlands provide a wide range of ecosystem services that are important for human-well-being. Despite their social and environmental importance, the degradation of urban wetlands continues mainly due to land use changes induced by rapid urbanization. Estimating the impact of these changes on ecosystem services is crucial to support the decision-making process of city planners at different levels. In this study, the spatial extents of the urban wetlands of San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico were determined for the years 2001 and 2018 in order to relate the spatial changes between these years with the provision and economic value of ecosystem services. Google Earth and SPOT imagery were used to evaluate land use/land cover changes while international coefficients were used to assess the value of the ecosystem services by category. Findings reveal a 7.3% decrease in the urban wetland area and a 12.5% increase of urban areas during the study period. The ecosystem service valuation shows that the total value flow decreased around $5 million (2007 USD) during the 17-year period, mainly due to decreases in the potential for regulating and cultural services. The use of freely available land use/land cover data together with global ecosystem service estimates reduce the cost of ground data collection and provides quick and reliable information that could help decision makers with land use planning in the context of data-scarce regions.

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Correction: Gu et al. 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, 10, 173

Land ◽

10.3390/land10050506 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (5) ◽

pp. 506

Author(s):

Changjun Gu ◽

Yili Zhang ◽

Linshan Liu ◽

Lanhui Li ◽

Shicheng Li ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Cover ◽

Ecosystem Service ◽

Google Earth ◽

Central Himalaya ◽

Land Cover Dynamics ◽

Google Earth Engine

In the original article [...]

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Characterizing the Up-To-Date Land-Use and Land-Cover Change in Xiong’an New Area from 2017 to 2020 Using the Multi-Temporal Sentinel-2 Images on Google Earth Engine

ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information ◽

10.3390/ijgi10070464 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (7) ◽

pp. 464

Author(s):

Jiansong Luo ◽

Xinwen Ma ◽

Qifeng Chu ◽

Min Xie ◽

Yujia Cao

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Cover ◽

State Level ◽

Google Earth ◽

Lulc Changes ◽

Classification Framework ◽

Multi Temporal ◽

Google Earth Engine ◽

Spatio Temporal ◽

Sentinel 2

Land use and land cover (LULC) are fundamental units of human activities. Therefore, it is of significance to accurately and in a timely manner obtain the LULC maps where dramatic LULC changes are undergoing. Since 2017 April, a new state-level area, Xiong’an New Area, was established in China. In order to better characterize the LULC changes in Xiong’an New Area, this study makes full use of the multi-temporal 10-m Sentinel-2 images, the cloud-computing Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform, and the powerful classification capability of random forest (RF) models to generate the continuous LULC maps from 2017 to 2020. To do so, a novel multiple RF-based classification framework is adopted by outputting the classification probability based on each monthly composite and aggregating the multiple probability maps to generate the final classification map. Based on the obtained LULC maps, this study analyzes the spatio-temporal changes of LULC types in the last four years and the different change patterns in three counties. Experimental results indicate that the derived LULC maps achieve high accuracy for each year, with the overall accuracy and Kappa values no less than 0.95. It is also found that the changed areas account for nearly 36%, and the dry farmland, impervious surface, and other land-cover types have changed dramatically and present varying change patterns in three counties, which might be caused by the latest planning of Xiong’an New Area. The obtained 10-m four-year LULC maps in this study are supposed to provide some valuable information on the monitoring and understanding of what kinds of LULC changes have taken place in Xiong’an New Area.

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Effects of Long-Term Land Use and Land Cover Changes on Ecosystem Service Values: An Example from the Central Rift Valley, Ethiopia

Land ◽

10.3390/land10121373 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (12) ◽

pp. 1373

Author(s):

Wolde Mekuria ◽

Merga Diyasa ◽

Anna Tengberg ◽

Amare Haileslassie

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Ecosystem Services ◽

Land Cover ◽

Ecosystem Service ◽

Rift Valley ◽

Water Security ◽

Landsat Images ◽

Lulc Changes ◽

Valuation Method ◽

Lake Systems

Changes in land use and land cover (LULC) are the leading contributors to the decline and loss of ecosystem services in the world. The present study covered the Central Rift Valley lakes basin in Ethiopia, focusing on the valley floor and the East and West escarpments, to analyze changes in LULC and to estimate associated losses in ecosystem service values (ESVs). Covering both upstream and downstream areas in the basin, the study addressed major gaps in existing studies by connecting the sources and sinks of material (e.g., sediment and water) in source-to-lake systems. Additionally, the study facilitated the identification of critical areas for conserving natural resources and reversing the decline of associated ESVs in the Central Rift Valley. A post-classification comparison approach was used to detect LULC changes between 1973 and 2020 using four Landsat images from 1973, 1990, 2005 and 2020. The value transfer valuation method was used to estimate the changes in ESVs due to LULC changes. Among the seven major identified LULC classes, farmlands, settlements, and bare lands showed positive changes, while forestlands, grasslands, shrublands and waterbodies showed negative changes over the last 47 years. The expansion of farmlands, for example, has occurred at the expense of grasslands, forestlands and shrublands. The changes in LULC over a period of 47 years resulted in a total loss of US $62,110.4 × 106 in ESVs. The contributors to the overall loss of ESVs in decreasing order are provisioning services (US $33,795.1 × 106), cultural services (US $28,981.5 × 106) and regulating services (US $652.9 × 106). The results imply that addressing the degradation of land and water resources is crucial to reversing the loss of ecosystem services and achieving the national Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to food and water security (SDGs 2 and 6) and life on land (SDG 15).

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Land Use/Land Cover Changes and Their Driving Factors in the Northeastern Tibetan Plateau Based on Geographical Detectors and Google Earth Engine: A Case Study in Gannan Prefecture

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs12193139 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (19) ◽

pp. 3139

Author(s):

Chenli Liu ◽

Wenlong Li ◽

Gaofeng Zhu ◽

Huakun Zhou ◽

Hepiao Yan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Tibetan Plateau ◽

Land Cover ◽

Google Earth ◽

Driving Factors ◽

Optical Remote Sensing ◽

Land Use Land Cover ◽

Landsat Images ◽

Lulc Changes ◽

Google Earth Engine

As an important production base for livestock and a unique ecological zone in China, the northeast Tibetan Plateau has experienced dramatic land use/land cover (LULC) changes with increasing human activities and continuous climate change. However, extensive cloud cover limits the ability of optical remote sensing satellites to monitor accurately LULC changes in this area. To overcome this problem in LULC mapping in the Ganan Prefecture, 2000–2018, we used the dense time stacking of multi-temporal Landsat images and random forest algorithm based on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform. The dynamic trends of LULC changes were analyzed, and geographical detectors quantitatively evaluated the key driving factors of these changes. The results showed that (1) the overall classification accuracy varied between 89.14% and 91.41%, and the kappa values were greater than 86.55%, indicating that the classification results were reliably accurate. (2) The major LULC types in the study area were grassland and forest, and their area accounted for 50% and 25%, respectively. During the study period, the grassland area decreased, while the area of forest land and construction land increased to varying degrees. The land-use intensity presents multi-level intensity, and it was higher in the northeast than that in the southwest. (3) Elevation and population density were the major driving factors of LULC changes, and economic development has also significantly affected LULC. These findings revealed the main factors driving LULC changes in Gannan Prefecture and provided a reference for assisting in the development of sustainable land management and ecological protection policy decisions.

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The rapid Land Use and Land Cover change analysis using the Sentinel-2 images in Google Earth Engine: A Case Study of Xiong’an New Area from 2017 to 2020

10.1109/agro-geoinformatics50104.2021.9530306 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jiansong Luo ◽

Rujin Yuan ◽

Yujia Cao ◽

Min Xie ◽

Yikai Wang

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Cover ◽

Land Cover Change ◽

Google Earth ◽

Change Analysis ◽

Google Earth Engine ◽

Land Cover Change Analysis ◽

Sentinel 2

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Mapping Regional Landscape by Using OpenstreetMap (OSM)

Environmental Information Systems ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-7033-2.ch033 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 771-790 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Di Yang

Keyword(s):

Remote Sensing ◽

Land Use ◽

Forest Cover ◽

Regional Scale ◽

Google Earth ◽

Computing Power ◽

New Approach ◽

Computation Cost ◽

Regional Landscape ◽

Google Earth Engine

A forest patterns map over a large extent at high spatial resolution is a heavily computation task but is critical to most regions. There are two major difficulties in generating the classification maps at regional scale: large training points sets and expensive computation cost in classifier modelling. As one of the most well-known Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) initiatives, OpenstreetMap contributes not only on road network distributions, but the potential of justify land cover and land use. Google Earth Engine is a platform designed for cloud-based mapping with a strong computing power. In this study, we proposed a new approach to generating forest cover map and quantifying road-caused forest fragmentations by using OpenstreetMap in conjunction with remote sensing dataset stored in Google Earth Engine. Additionally, the landscape metrics produced after incorporating OpenStreetMap (OSM) with the forest spatial pattern layers from our output indicated significant levels of forest fragmentation in Yucatan peninsula.

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