Multiple endmember spectral mixture analysis (MESMA) models mixed spectra as a linear combination of endmembers that are allowed to vary in number and type on a per pixel basis. For modeling an image using MESMA, a parsimonious set of endmembers is desirable for computational efficiency and operational simplicity. This paper presents a method of selecting endmembers from a spectral library for ...

An agent-based model, incorporating a small set of primarily agent-based variables, was designed to explain private land-use decision making. Agents are landowners, who allocate their labor and land for different uses in regular time intervals. The goal is to understand what kind of spatial patterns emerge from different agent characteristics, and decision and learning mechanisms. Landscapes pr...

The accuracy assessment of land cover maps is traditionally based on reference sample observations randomly selected over the study area. It is assumed that reference sample observations, representing the “real” land cover at Earth’s surface, are free of errors. However, some of these may be erroneous. These errors are sometimes due to an uncertainty in the identification of the most adequate r...

The hydrological response to land cover changes induced by human activities in arid regions has attracted increased research interest in recent decades. The study reported herein assessed the spatial and quantitative changes in surface runoff resulting from land cover change in the Al-Baha region of Saudi Arabia between 1990 and 2000 using an ArcGIS-surface runoff model and predicted land cover...

Achieving more timely, accurate and transparent information on the distribution and dynamics of the world’s land cover is essential to understanding the fundamental characteristics, processes and threats associated with human-nature-climate interactions. Higher resolution (~30–50 m) land cover mapping is expected to advance the understanding of the multi-dimensional interactions of the human-na...

Land use/cover change (LUCC), which results from the complex interaction of social, ecological and geophysical processes, is a major issue and the main cause of global environmental change. This study analyzed the land use/cover dynamics and their environmental and socio-political forces in the upper reaches of Yangtze River from 1980 to 2000 by using remote sensing, climatic and socio-economic...

Landsat MSS and ETM+ images were analyzed to detect 25-year land-cover change (1976–2001) in the critical Taguibo Watershed in Mindanao Island, Southern Philippines. This watershed has experienced historical modifications of its land-cover due to the presence of logging industries in the 1950s, and continuous deforestation due to illegal logging and slash-and-burn agriculture in the present tim...