In the land use and land cover (LULC) literature, narrative scenarios are qualitative descriptions of plausible futures associated with a combination of socio-economic, policy, technological, and climate changes. LULC models are then often used to translate these narrative descriptions into quantitative characterizations of possible future societal and ecological impacts and conditions. To resp...

The recent rise in Brazilian soybean production has generated concern among the environmental community and some authors that natural tropical environments of the Amazon Basin are being converted to soybean fields. Proponents of soybean production counter that soybeans represent a viable agricultural commodity for the region; environmental concern is unwarranted, because new soybean fields are ...

In recent decades, urbanization has become a significant urban environmental and ecological concern, especially in most developing countries. In China, rapid urban sprawl has had a profound influence on runoff and results in larger and more frequent incidents of flooding in many urban areas. Therefore, evaluating the impacts of urbanization on runoff is of great important for urban planning pol...

Landscape dynamics are common phenomenon in the human-dominated environments whereby it can be observed that the composition and configuration between landscape elements change over time. This dynamism brings about habitat loss and fragmentation that can greatly alter ecosystem services at patch, class, and landscape levels. We conducted a study to examine composition and configuration of fores...

The Urban Heat Island (UHI) is the phenomenon of altered increased temperatures in urban areas compared to their rural surroundings. UHIs grow and intensify under extreme hot periods, such as during heat waves, which can affect human health and also increase the demand for energy for cooling. This study applies remote sensing and land use/land cover (LULC) data to assess the cooling effect of v...

Species distribution models often use climate data to assess contemporary and/or future ranges for animal or plant species. Land use and land cover (LULC) data are important predictor variables for determining species range, yet are rarely used when modeling future distributions. In this study, maximum entropy modeling was used to construct species distribution maps for 50 North American bird s...

The quality of remotely sensed land use and land cover (LULC) maps is affected by the accuracy of image data classifications. Various efforts have been made in advancing supervised or unsupervised classification methods to increase the repeatability and accuracy of LULC mapping. This study incorporates a data-assisted labeling approach (DALA) into the unsupervised classification of remotely sen...

BACKGROUND In 1995, a study was conducted to identify the effects of traditional and westernized environments on the prevalence of type 2 diabetes in Pima Indians (Pimas) in Mexico and the United States. The study concluded that the more traditional lifestyle in Mexico had a protective effect against this metabolic disorder. In the ensuing 15 years, the environmental circumstances of the Mexica...

urban expansion and agriculture intensification are relevant drivers in land degradation (ld)processes in europe due to net loss of land, soil sealing, landscape fragmentation and other negative effects on the environment. this paper explores changes (or “trajectories” of change) in land use and cover (lulc) and their relationship with the consumption of soils in emilia-romagna (northern italy)...

Urban forest ecosystems provide a range of social and ecological services, but due to the heterogeneity of these canopies their spatial extent is difficult to quantify and monitor. Traditional per-pixel classification methods have been used to map urban canopies, however, such techniques are not generally appropriate for assessing these highly variable landscapes. Landsat imagery has historical...