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People are constantly changing the land surface through construction, agriculture, energy production, and other activities. Changes both in how land is used by people (land use) and in the vegetation, rock, buildings, and other physical material that cover the Earth's surface (land cover) can be described and future land change can be projected using land-change models (LCMs). LCMs are a key means for understanding how humans are reshaping the Earth's surface in the past and present, for forecasting future landscape conditions, and for developing policies to manage our use of resources and the environment at scales ranging from an individual parcel of land in a city to vast expanses of forests around the world. Advancing Land Change Modeling: Opportunities and Research Requirements describes various LCM approaches, suggests guidance for their appropriate application, and makes recommendations to improve the integration of observation strategies into the models. This report provides a summary and evaluation of several modeling approaches, and their theoretical and empirical underpinnings, relative to complex land-change dynamics and processes, and identifies several opportunities for further advancing the science, data, and cyberinfrastructure involved in the LCM enterprise. Because of the numerous models available, the report focuses on describing the categories of approaches used along with selected examples, rather than providing a review of specific models. Additionally, because all modeling approaches have relative strengths and weaknesses, the report compares these relative to different purposes. Advancing Land Change Modeling's recommendations for assessment of future data and research needs will enable model outputs to better assist the science, policy, and decisionsupport communities.

A new tool for mapping urban land cover that integrates design principles and ecological knowledge for understanding cities as complex, patchy and dynamic systems Using a new, hybrid approach to urban land cover classification as an impetus to bring ecologists and urban designers together, this atlas is a unique conceptual tool to describe and analyze cities as complex systems. It brings together over a decade of shared knowledge from the Baltimore Ecosystem Study to inspire ecologically motivated design practice. The atlas displays maps and tables depicting land cover classes and the relationships between them; information on how the specific cover arrangements evolved over time; and speculations on how they might change through design, disturbance, or succession. Rather than separating human-constructed spaces from predominantly biological and geological ones, this book integrates social and ecological structures and shows how this can contribute to the scholarship of ecology and the practice of design. Interdisciplinary and strikingly illustrated, the atlas is a new way to study, measure, and view cities with a more effective interaction of scientific understanding and design practice.

The Amazon basin is a key component of the global carbon cycle. The old-growth rainforests in the basin represent storage of ~ 120 petagrams of carbon (Pg C) in their biomass. Annually, these tropical forests process approximately 18 Pg C through respiration and photosynthesis. This is more than twice the rate of global anthropogenic fossil fuel emissions. The basin is also the largest global repository of biodiversity and produces about 20 percent of the world's flow of fresh water into the oceans. Despite the large carbon dioxide (CO2) efflux from recent deforestation, the Amazon rainforest ecosystem is still considered to be a net carbon sinks of 0.8-1.1 Pg C per year because growth on average exceeds mortality (Phillips et al. 2008). However, current climate trends and human-induced deforestation may be transforming forest structure and behavior (Phillips et al. 2009). Increasing temperatures may accelerate respiration rates and thus carbon emissions from soils (Malhi and Grace 2000). High probabilities for modification in rainfall patterns (Malhi et al. 2008) and prolonged drought stress may lead to reductions in biomass density. Resulting changes in evapo-transpiration and therefore convective precipitation could further accelerate drought conditions and destabilize the tropical ecosystem as a whole, causing a reduction in its biomass carrying capacity or dieback. In turn, changes in the structure of the Amazon and its associated water cycle will have implications for the many endemic species it contains and result in changes at a continental scale. Clearly, with much at stake, if climate-induced damage alters the state of the Amazon ecosystem, there is a need to better understand its risk, process, and dynamics. The objective of this study is to assist in understanding the risk, process, and dynamics of potential Amazon dieback and its implications.

Changes in land use and land cover (LULC) have major effects on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Land change models can simulate future trends of ecosystem services under different scenarios to inform the actions of decision makers towards building a more sustainable society. LULC data are essential inputs for predicting future land changes. It is now possible to derive high-resolution LULC maps from satellite data using remote sensing techniques. However, the classification of land categories in these maps is too limited to sufficiently assess biodiversity and ecosystem services. This study aims to develop land-use scenarios, using an appropriate LULC map, to enable assessment of biodiversity and ecosystem services at the national scale. First, we developed an LULC dataset using vegetation inventories based on field records of vegetation collected throughout the country in the periods 1978–1987, 1988–1998 and 1999–2014. The vegetation maps consist of over 905 vegetation categories, from which we aggregated the most prevalent categories into 9 LULC categories. Second, we created a business-as-usual scenario and plausible future scenarios on the land use change maps using the Land Change Model tool. In the process of developing the model, we considered key drivers including biophysical and socio-economic factors. The results showed some key land changes as consequences of intensive/extensive land-use interventions. These derived scenario maps can be used to assess the impacts of future land change on biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Scientists increasingly cross their disciplinary boundaries and connect with local stakeholders to jointly solve complex problems. Working with stakeholders means higher legitimacy and supports practical impact of research. Games provide a tool to achieve such transdisciplinary collaboration. In this paper, we explore the use of a game in a participatory project where scientists and local stakeholders are seeking and defining a joint problem. The literature is clear that this step is essential but remains short on concrete methods. Here, we explore this potential in practice. We conducted parallel participatory processes in two alpine regions considered as socio-ecological system (SES) in Switzerland and France, both vulnerable to global change. Based on these two case studies, we co-constructed a game, integrating scientific concerns about key land use, climate change and socio-economic elements of a mountain SES (tourism, agriculture, housing and demography). With the game, we assessed the existence of joint problems connecting scientific and local interests. The game successfully engaged participants at both sites over 11 game sessions, showing potential of use in other transdisciplinary settings. By covering a wide array of issues, the game created a discussion space for listing problems and identifying where scientist and stakeholder interests overlap. In Switzerland, the game revealed no pressing joint problem to be addressed. In France, game sessions revealed, among other problems, an enduring and complex issue regarding the co-existence of inhabitants and powerful institutions. Having demonstrated the capacity of this game for joint-problem assessment, we believe other participatory research in similar SES could benefit from an early use of such an approach to frame the potential for collaboration.

Urbanization has greatly changed the nature of the urban underlying surface, which may increase the probability and intensity of haze weather. Using Landsat-7 ETM + and HJ-1A satellite multispectral remote sensing data,land use characteristics in Wuhan in 2002 and 2012 were analyzed by manual interpretation,and the land use planning map of Wuhan city was digitized and scaled. According to the typical gray haze weather process observed in Wuhan, different land types ( history, present situation, and future) were simulated using the WRF-NAQPMS air quality numerical model.Simultaneously,the variations of the atmospheric wind field,temperature field,and concentration field of the main atmospheric pollutant in different situations were assessed,and the influence of the cushion on the haze weather was analyzed.The results provide a scientific basis for perfecting urban land planning and construction from the viewpoint of prevention and mitigation of gray haze weather.

基于全国生态环境10年变化 (2000-2010年) 遥感调查与评估项目中嘉兴市2000年、2005年和2010年3期TM 遥感影像数据,运用MCE-CA 模型,预测出2005年、2010年土地利用格局,与实际情况进行模拟精度检验,其Kappa系数达到0.94 和0.92,证明模型精度很高。通过MCE-CA 模型预测嘉兴市2015年、2020年土地利用格局,计算生态服务价值变化率与土地利用强度变化率的比值得到土地利用变化下的生态敏感性指数,运用ArcGIS 空间叠加功能分析其过程,目的在于得到生态敏感性分布情况。得出:2000-2020年嘉兴市的景观格局发生了较大变化,耕地大幅度减少,建设用地大幅度增加。2000-2010年生态敏感性急剧增高,说明近10年生态环境受到威胁愈来愈严重 2010-2020年在林草湿地不可转化为建设用地,耕地和未利用地可转化为建设用地的预测情境下,生态敏感性有所降低,生态环境得到改善。此土地利用与生态敏感性预测结果对嘉兴市的城市规划、可持续发展具有一定的借鉴作用。 Based on three periods TMremote sensing image data in Jiaxing City of Year 2000, 2005 and 2010 in the national ecological environment remote sensing investigation and assessment project (2000-2010), by using MCE-CA model, the forecast land use of year 2005 and 2010 was obtained. Compared the forecast land use with the true land use of year 2005 and 2010, the Kappa index was 0.94 and 0.92, it proved that the simulation accuracy of MCE-CA model was high. The land use pattern in 2015 and 2020 could also be obtained by using MCE-CA model. With the rate of land use chan

The first premise of this book is that farmers need access to options for improving their situation. In agricultural terms, these options might be manage­ ment alternatives or different crops to grow, that can stabilize or increase household income, that reduce soil degradation and dependence on off-farm inputs, or that exploit local market opportunities. Farmers need a facilitating environment, in which affordable credit is available if needed, in which policies are conducive to judicious management of natural resources, and in which costs and prices of production are stable. Another key ingredient of this facilitating environment is information: an understanding of which options are viable, how these operate at the farm level, and what their impact may be on the things that farmers perceive as being important. The second premise is that systems analysis and simulation have an impor­ tant role to play in fostering this understanding of options, traditional field experimentation being time-consuming and costly. This book summarizes the activities of the International Benchmark Sites Network for Agrotechnology Transfer (IBSNAT) project, an international initiative funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). IBSNAT was an attempt to demonstrate the effectiveness of understanding options through systems analysis and simulation for the ultimate benefit of farm households in the tropics and subtropics. The idea for the book was first suggested at one of the last IBSNAT group meetings held at the University of Hawaii in 1993.