scholarly journals Spatial Analysis of the Drivers, Characteristics, and Effects of Forest Fragmentation

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 3246
Author(s):  
Zoe Slattery ◽  
Richard Fenner

Building on the existing literature, this study examines whether specific drivers of forest fragmentation cause particular fragmentation characteristics, and how these characteristics can be linked to their effects on forest-dwelling species. This research uses Landsat remote imaging to examine the changing patterns of forests. It focuses on areas which have undergone a high level of a specific fragmentation driver, in particular either agricultural expansion or commodity-driven deforestation. Seven municipalities in the states of Rondônia and Mato Grosso in Brazil are selected as case study areas, as these states experienced a high level of commodity-driven deforestation and agricultural expansion respectively. Land cover maps of each municipality are created using the Geographical Information System software ArcGIS Spatial Analyst extension. The resulting categorical maps are input into Fragstats fragmentation software to calculate quantifiable fragmentation metrics for each municipality. To determine the effects that these characteristics are likely to cause, this study uses a literature review to determine how species traits affect their responses to forest fragmentation. Results indicate that, in areas that underwent agricultural expansion, the remaining forest patches became more complex in shape with longer edges and lost a large amount of core area. This negatively affects species which are either highly dispersive or specialist to core forest habitat. In areas that underwent commodity-driven deforestation, it was more likely that forest patches would become less aggregated and create disjunct core areas. This negatively affects smaller, sedentary animals which do not naturally travel long distances. This study is significant in that it links individual fragmentation drivers to their landscape characteristics, and in turn uses these to predict effects on species with particular traits. This information will prove useful for forest managers, particularly in the case study municipalities examined in this study, in deciding which species require further protection measures. The methodology could be applied to other drivers of forest fragmentation such as forest fires.

2000 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Puric-Mladenovic ◽  
W. A. Kenney ◽  
F. Csillag

Forests patches and forest fragmentation were quantified for seven area municipalities within the Regional Municipality of York for the period from 1975 to 1988. This quantification made it possible to determine the extent of forest changes in space and time. In 1988, forest cover shrank to 30%–50% of its 1975 extent. At the same time, the number of forest patches doubled or tripled and mean patch size and the area of interior (based on a 100 m wide edge) declined indicating a high rate of forest fragmentation. Key words: development, fragmentation, remote sensing, forest


2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (6) ◽  
pp. 1003-1011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vitor Matheus Bacani

ABSTRACT Forest fires are a permanent threat in urban-forest interface areas and cause considerable environmental damage, especially in protected areas. An efficient way to assist decision-making to prevent an increase in forest fires is risk assessment using geographical information systems (GIS). The objective of this study was to evaluate the risk of forest fires in the municipality of Bodoquena, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, using remote sensing data and spatial analysis techniques implemented in a GIS. The procedures of the methodology are based on spatial analysis techniques to prepare maps of the likelihood of fire based on calculations of the Euclidean distance, the Kernel statistical method and fuzzy transformation and to combine these maps via the increasing diffuse overlay method. The results showed a high risk of forest fires on the margins of the urban area, rural settlements and main roads that cross the municipality, as well as the surrounding areas. It is concluded that the municipality of Bodoquena has a high risk of forest fires in areas with high biodiversity, especially the areas surrounding the Serra da Bodoquena National Park and Mato Grosso do Sul Pantanal.


2015 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 320-337
Author(s):  
Yves Dumond

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the use of information technology (IT) in the fight against forest fires in southern France. Design/methodology/approach – The focus is on specifying the infrastructure and equipment used during operational interventions, as well as the role and functioning of the mobile command posts, which represent the nerve centers. As part of the firefighters operational practices, the concepts of the “tactical situation” and the “mobile means board” are at the heart of operations management. The purpose of the tactical situations is to present a synthetic overview of the theatre of operations through graphic representation on a background map. The function of the mobile means board is to manage the life cycle of the different resources engaged in the operations. The author first shows how these concepts were developed within the framework of manual management only. This is followed by an IT solution using a geographical information system for each of these operational modes. Findings – A profound recognition of operational practices was a prerequisite to enable the personnel to accept a progression towards the use of IT techniques. Research limitations/implications – The implemented approach precisely reflects the French forest firefighting doctrine. Application to other countries would thus require some adaptation. Originality/value – The software system provides an easy access to geographical information functionalities for firefighters managing forest fires. This is achieved in the framework of strict compliance with their recognized operational methods.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 98-119
Author(s):  
Iris E. M. Fynn ◽  
James Campbell

Abstract With an annual population growth rate currently estimated at about 5 %, Virginia presents an ideal case study for anthropogenic environmental disturbances. Urbanization as a result of increasing human activities has led to fragmentation of many crucial habitats, especially forests. Analysis of the extent to which forest fragmentation and connectivity have occurred in Virginia and corresponding changes associated with these processes, is relevant for conserving forest habitats and the biodiversity that they support. This study applies FRAGSTATS, a software system developed to assess forest fragmentation and connectivity, in combination with ArcGIS, to identify changes in forest patch metrics for Virginia over a ten-year interval (2001, 2006 and 2011) using National Land Cover Datasets (NLCD) maps as data source. Results show that, over ten years, forest patches have significantly declined in size, while the number of forest patches and total length of edge areas have increased over time. Results of this study show that road density in Virginia has no significant effect on forest fragmentation between 2001 and 2011. Analysis using ArcGIS revealed that sizes of core forest areas in Virginia are declining, and that these reductions match local topographic slope. This is because the steepness of the slope of an area dictates the degree of human activities in that area. These results suggest that urban sprawl associated with areas with gentler slopes, may have significant, long-term consequences for natural forest ecosystems and ultimately, biodiversity conservation.


GIS Business ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 206-212
Author(s):  
Dr. D. Shoba ◽  
Dr. G. Suganthi

Employees and employers are facing issues in work life balance. It has become a difficult domain now, because the work needs have increased due to an increase in work pressure and complexities in handling the technology. As there are drastic changes in the rules and regulations in the work scenario of the aviation industry, it makes work life balance of employees difficult and set more hurdles. Hence there are many distractions and imbalances in the life of women employees in the aviation industry working across all levels. This work pressure is creating high level of hurdles in maintaining a harmonious job and family life, especially for female aviation employees. Data is collected from 50 female crew members working at Cochin International Airport. The objective of this study is to analyze the work life balance of working females of Cochin International Airport and its influence on their personal and specialized lives. The result of the study shows that the management should frame certain policies which will help employees to have the balance among their personal and expert lives.


2009 ◽  
Vol 160 (10) ◽  
pp. 311-317 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Mollet ◽  
Dominik Thiel

The present study investigated whether the flushing distance, the territorial use and the stress hormone physiology of the capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus) were influenced in the winter by the presence of a large number of people engaged in sporting activities. In most cases flushing distances were greater, and higher concentrations of stress hormone were found in the blood serum, in areas having a high intensity of sporting activities than in forest stands relatively undisturbed by tourists. During the ski season capercaillie avoided forest patches within their home ranges where there was a high level of recreational activity. The results lead to the conclusion that intensive winter tourism can be a serious threat to the remaining capercaillie populations in middle Europe. It is recommended that the construction of new recreational facilities and new developments should be avoided in the most important habitats for capercaillie. The important habitats which today already lie in the immediate vicinity of areas intensively used by tourists could clearly receive enhanced status, according to each situation, either as tranquility areas for wildlife where entrance is forbidden or with regulations requiring winter tourists to stay on trails.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-52
Author(s):  
Nitin Mundhe

Floods are natural risk with a very high frequency, which causes to environmental, social, economic and human losses. The floods in the town happen mainly due to human made activities about the blockage of natural drainage, haphazard construction of roads, building, and high rainfall intensity. Detailed maps showing flood vulnerability areas are helpful in management of flood hazards. Therefore, present research focused on identifying flood vulnerability zones in the Pune City using multi-criteria decision-making approach in Geographical Information System (GIS) and inputs from remotely sensed imageries. Other input data considered for preparing base maps are census details, City maps, and fieldworks. The Pune City classified in to four flood vulnerability classes essential for flood risk management. About 5 per cent area shows high vulnerability for floods in localities namely Wakdewadi, some part of the Shivajinagar, Sangamwadi, Aundh, and Baner with high risk.


Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 703
Author(s):  
Astrid Vannoppen ◽  
Jeroen Degerickx ◽  
Anne Gobin

Attractive landscapes are diverse and resilient landscapes that provide a multitude of essential ecosystem services. The development of landscape policy to protect and improve landscape attractiveness, thereby ensuring the provision of ecosystem services, is ideally adapted to region specific landscape characteristics. In addition, trends in landscape attractiveness may be linked to certain policies, or the absence of policies over time. A spatial and temporal evaluation of landscape attractiveness is thus desirable for landscape policy development. In this paper, landscape attractiveness was spatially evaluated for Flanders (Belgium) using landscape indicators derived from geospatial data as a case study. Large local differences in landscape quality in (i) rural versus urban areas and (ii) between the seven agricultural regions in Flanders were found. This observed spatial variability in landscape attractiveness demonstrated that a localized approach, considering the geophysical characteristics of each individual region, would be required in the development of landscape policy to improve landscape quality in Flanders. Some trends in landscape attractiveness were related to agriculture in Flanders, e.g., a slight decrease in total agricultural area, decrease in dominance of grassland, maize and cereals, a decrease in crop diversity, sharp increase in the adoption of agri-environmental agreements (AEA) and a decrease in bare soil conditions in winter. The observed trends and spatial variation in landscape attractiveness can be used as a tool to support policy analysis, assess the potential effects of future policy plans, identify policy gaps and evaluate past landscape policy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-46
Author(s):  
David Sanan ◽  
Yongwang Zhao ◽  
Shang-Wei Lin ◽  
Liu Yang

To make feasible and scalable the verification of large and complex concurrent systems, it is necessary the use of compositional techniques even at the highest abstraction layers. When focusing on the lowest software abstraction layers, such as the implementation or the machine code, the high level of detail of those layers makes the direct verification of properties very difficult and expensive. It is therefore essential to use techniques allowing to simplify the verification on these layers. One technique to tackle this challenge is top-down verification where by means of simulation properties verified on top layers (representing abstract specifications of a system) are propagated down to the lowest layers (that are an implementation of the top layers). There is no need to say that simulation of concurrent systems implies a greater level of complexity, and having compositional techniques to check simulation between layers is also desirable when seeking for both feasibility and scalability of the refinement verification. In this article, we present CSim 2 a (compositional) rely-guarantee-based framework for the top-down verification of complex concurrent systems in the Isabelle/HOL theorem prover. CSim 2 uses CSimpl, a language with a high degree of expressiveness designed for the specification of concurrent programs. Thanks to its expressibility, CSimpl is able to model many of the features found in real world programming languages like exceptions, assertions, and procedures. CSim 2 provides a framework for the verification of rely-guarantee properties to compositionally reason on CSimpl specifications. Focusing on top-down verification, CSim 2 provides a simulation-based framework for the preservation of CSimpl rely-guarantee properties from specifications to implementations. By using the simulation framework, properties proven on the top layers (abstract specifications) are compositionally propagated down to the lowest layers (source or machine code) in each concurrent component of the system. Finally, we show the usability of CSim 2 by running a case study over two CSimpl specifications of an Arinc-653 communication service. In this case study, we prove a complex property on a specification, and we use CSim 2 to preserve the property on lower abstraction layers.


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