Significant Changes In Land Cover Research Articles

An indicator based approach for assessing the vulnerability of riparian ecosystem under the influence of urbanization in the Indian Himalayan city, Dehradun

Riparian ecosystems are critical biological habitat that needs to be preserved. These systems face multiple stresses of altered water regime, increased human interference and biological invasion, climate change, land developments and other site-specific issues that may include eutrophication and urbanisation. In due course of urbanisation, riparian vegetation is replaced by both impervious and less permeable surfaces causing more frequent floods, greater total surface runoff, and decreased time to produce runoff. This may result in flooding of the city when a substantial rain is received. In this study, we evaluated the vulnerability of riparian zones in Dehradun city of India due to urbanisation using a series of indicators extracted from remote sensing data. The changes in the landscape pattern of the riparian zones were examined by analyzing and manipulating Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 datasets using Google Earth Engine, ArcGIS 10.1 and ERDAS IMAGINE 2014 software. Factors influencing the changes within the riparian area were identified using higher resolution image, existing base maps and reconnaissance surveys to qualify them as one of the indicators. Anthropogenic activities such as new residential buildings, infrastructure (such as roads), farming activities and commercial activities (industrial set up) were some of the factors contributing to the vulnerability of riparian zones. The final indicators in the form of riparian zone slope, extent of the riparian area, vegetation cover, human disturbance were mapped as raster layers and were integrated in a GIS environment to obtain final vulnerability map. This was intersected with settlement density map to categorize the vulnerability levels for three settlement density classes of low, medium and high. The findings reveal a significant land cover change within the riparian zones over a period of twenty years (2000 to 2019) with various levels of human encroachment. It was observed that 26.15% of the riparian area falls under low, 47.68% under medium, 12.98% under high, and 13.19% under very high vulnerability classes. Furthermore, the coverage percentage of high vulnerability class was largest in the low and high settlement density areas of riparian zones accounting for 36.96% and 51.48%, respectively. The majority of the area (74.36%) falls under medium vulnerability class under medium settlement density class. The study provides an opportunity to map riparian zone vulnerability considering predominant indicators of vulnerability that could be mapped using remotely sensed data and application of GIS tools.

Managing Natural Resources and Environmental Challenges in the Face of Urban Sprawl in Indian Himalayan City of Jammu

Managing natural resources and environmental challenges is central to the sustainable development goals agreed in 2015. Urban sprawl is one of the main dynamic forces of global environmental change, especially in small cities. This paper considers such a city in the mountainous Himalayan Terrain, the population of which is on the rise and faces frequent floods. To assess the drivers of land use change, its process and consequences in the region, land use and land cover mapping since 1981 have been done, addition to reviewing it from different perspectives. Land is becoming a scarce resource due to immense agricultural and demographic pressure in the region. The paper apprises of the changes that have occurred between 1981 and 2011, and its consequences. It lists various socioeconomic and environmental factors that are behind the significant change in land use and land cover in the selected site, and suggests relevant and doable actions to revert or stop further change.

Karakteristik Hidrologi dan Pengelolaannya dengan Model Hidrologi Soil and Water Assessment Tool Sub DAS Cisadane Hulu

One of the priority watersheds to be managed in Indonesia is the Cisadane watershed due to the high degradation problems. The Cisadene watershed degradation could be indicated by a high river flow during rainy season, low baseflow in dry season, and high erosion and sedimentation. One of the main problems in the Cisadane watershed is a huge landcover changes in the Cisadane Hulu watershed that causes a decrease in water absorption region and a surface runoff. The study aimed to analyze landcover changes in the Cisadane Hulu Watershed during 2013-2018 and analyze the watershed conditions based on their hydrological characteristics. Analysis of landcover changes patterns was carried out by processing spatial data using GIS software. Analysis for hydrological characteristics was conducted by using SWAT modelling (Soil and Water Assessment Tool). The results showed that there were land cover changes during 2013-2018. The most significant landcover changes in the Cisadane Hulu watershed was residential area (455.95 ha). The result simulation scenario of the model SWAT showed scenario 2 was the best scenario for the management of the Cisadane Hulu watershed. The application of Soil and Water Conservation can decrease surface runoff by 32.1% and increase lateral flow by 8.89%. Therefore, it is expected that the results of this SWAT model simulation will be taken into consideration by the local government for the optimal management of the Cisadane Hulu watershed.
 
 Keywords: Cisadane watershed, land cover change, SWAT modelling

The spatial dynamics of land cover change along the Wallacea corridor in the key biodiversity area ‘Buano Island’, Maluku, Indonesia

Land cover change is an urgent global issue that needs to be addressed immediately. Its dynamics are of the greatest importance to Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) along the Wallacea Corridor, including Buano Island, whose land and sea are rich in biodiversity. KBA Buano Island is home to endemic and endangered birds, such as Moluccan scrubfowl ( Eulipoa wallacei ) and black-chinned monarch ( Monarcha boanensis ). Black-chinned monarch only lives on the island ( single-site species ). Buano waters have an interestingly diverse life, including dugong ( Dugong dugon ), hawksbill turtle ( Eretmochelys imbricata ), loggerhead turtle ( Caretta caretta ), and many species belonging to the dolphin family (Delphinidae) and beaked whale family (Ziphiidae). This study was designed to analyze and map the spatial-temporal patterns of land cover changes on Buano Island. It employed a multi-temporal analysis on Landsat images from 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010, until now, and a t-test to analyze the results further. The t-test analysis produced t-count ≥ t-table at confidence level (α) of 0.05, indicating significant changes in land cover from 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010, until 2016. These multitemporal-spatial dynamics were attributable to fluctuation in population growth and open and straightforward access between the island and the capital of the regency. Furthermore, from the aspect of fishery and maritime affairs, Buano Island already had synergistic land area development.

Land cover change in Tashkent province during 1992 – 2018

In this research, a specific period in time (from 1992 – 2018) with 8 -10 years’ timescales of Landsat satellite images were used for land cover classification. To detect land cover change combined classification method with clustering study area into 120 classes and further validation by Google Earth was performed. Our findings show significant land cover changes during the whole study period. Especially this related to grassland/scrubland/meadow/agriculture class, which was around 7000 km2 in 1992, and it dramatically fell to 3000 km2 in 2008 and reached 6000 km2 after ten years. Forest/parks/woodlands land cover class shows a tendency to increase and consisted of its maximum area 4000 km2, but then rapidly fell to 1600 km2 within the next ten years. Glaciers, in contrast, covered area of 1825 km2, but then starts steadily decline and finally reaches only 263 km2 in 2018. Bare soil and barren land starts from 3111 km2 and expands to 5640 km2 area in 2018. The same pattern shows urban/asphalt/rocks class started from 1089 km2 and ends with 2677 km2. Only water bodies do not represent any significant change in Tashkent province during the study period.

Land Cover and NDBI analysis to map built up area in Iskandar Malaysia

The growth of Iskandar Malaysia as a regional development corridor is inescapable large and rapid. The study area has been transformed from predominantly agricultural and forest land prior to 1990s into the second largest and third most urbanized area in peninsular Malaysia. The aim of this paper is to map Iskandar land cover change from 1991 to 2019 using sequential Landsat multi-spectral images with Normalized Difference Building Index (NDBI) analysis to assess spatio-temporal urban built up and its pattern. Accuracy assessment of kappa coefficient is used to measure the accuracy of classification. Research has proved a significant rapid land cover change and a vast transformation of agricultural and forest land into low density urbanized area scattered in Iskandar. A rapid land cover change of regional development corridor has significant influence on urban expansion especially to their periphery.

Ecosystem service value of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau significantly increased during 25 years

As a highly valuable region that provides multiple important ecosystem services, the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau is vulnerable to climate change and human activities, which have induced significant land cover changes from 1990 to 2015. However, the impact of these changes on the ecosystem service values in the 25 years remains unknown. In this study, we used the combined approach of land cover proxy and unit value transfer method to assess changes in ecosystem service values. The results showed that total ecosystem service values including provisioning, regulating, habitat and cultural services has increased from ca. 1.77 trillion in 1990 to ca. 1.81 trillion US dollars in 2015, mainly due to the considerable expansion of rivers and lakes and a decrease of bare lands and glacier and snow. Although the elasticity analysis found that the response of ESV changes is not that elastic to LULC changes in three periods, 1990–2000, 2000–2010 and 2010–2015, it can still be used as a detector to locate unusual changes in different regions and to indicate urgent need for specific ecosystem management.

Analysis of Land-Use and Land-Cover Changes in YongDeng County Using Remote Sensing and GIS

The research is supported by the fundamental Research Funds of Gansu Provincial Natural Science Fund of “Research on Land Use and Ecological Security in Ecologically Vulnerable Areas” (Project No. GSAN-ZL-2015-045) and Research on the Coordination Relationship between Land Urbanization and Population Urbanization (Project No. GSAU-ZL-2015-046). Abstract To generate reliable data on the spatiotemporal changes in land use and land cover in YongDeng county over a period of 24 years (1993 -2017) that will provide a basis for land use management decisions and policy formulation, this study used RS and GIS to analyze Landsat images of 1993, 2001, 2009 and 2017 of the study area which were acquired from the Geospatial Data Cloud ( Http/westdc.westgis.ac.cn ). Using supervised classification based on maximum likelihood classification method in ArcGIS (version 10.3) to classify images of the various years, the computed land use and land cover classes indicate that over the period of 24 years, significant Land use and land cover changes have occurred in the study area and the dominant land-use types in the study area were found to be grassland, bare land woodland and cultivated land occupying 65 percent, 20 percent, 8 percent and 6 percent of the study area respectively. As the years pass by, urban sprawl, population growth, agricultural activities, and other socio-economic activities in the study area, have led to rapid land-use transfer and change intensity. The results revealed that about 4.5 km² of grassland, 3.21 km² of bare land, 2.51 km² of cultivated lands and 1.7 km² of woodland were changed to construction lands from 1993-2017, whiles Cultivated lands, on the other hand, made gains of 2.56 km² from Garden lands, 2.3 km² from bare land and 1.05 km² from woodland from 1993 to 2017. Whiles transport land, from 1993 to 2017 gained 3.3 km² from bare land, 2.42 km² from grassland, and 1.32 km² from cultivated. Cultivated land, transportation land, construction land and water area and conservation land showed significantly positive land-use change intensity index of 2.19%, 1.97%, 1.49% and 1.31% respectively. Garden Land and woodland, though not significant also showed positive land-use change intensity of 0.55% and 0.79% respectively. The study identified population growth, urbanization and policy orientation as the main drivers of land use/land cover change in the area. The results reveal there is an urgent need to put measures in place to reduce the overexploitation of land in order to protect the integrity of biodiversity and to also ensure a continuous supply of valuable ecosystem services. Keywords : Land-use/land-cover change, remote sensing, geographical information system, dynamic change, YongDeng County. DOI: 10.7176/JEES/10-6-15 Publication date: June 30 th 2020

Assessment of drivers of forest changes using multi-temporal analysis and boosted regression trees model: a case study of Nyeri County, Central Region of Kenya

The Central Region of Kenya has undergone significant changes in land cover due to a broad range of drivers. These changes are more pronounced in forestland conversions. Past researches within the study area have identified drivers of land cover change without quantifying the influence of these drivers. Predictor variables include population density, precipitation, elevation, slope, forest fires, soil texture, proximity to roads, rives and towns. Land cover changes were analyzed using multi-temporal land cover maps between year 1990 and 2014. Boosted regression trees model was applied to determine the significant drivers and quantify their relative influence on key forestland transitions. The local and spatial influence of the drivers has further been analyzed by geographical weighted regression using coefficients determined at each sample point. Significant land cover changes continuously occurred over the study period. Forestland reduced from 38.90% in 1990 to 38.14% in 2014. Grassland reduced from 32.59 to 22.57%, cropland increased from 28.05 to 38.83% and wetland changed from 0.07 to 0.04%. Other land which constitutes of bare land and built up increased from 0.38 to 0.42%. The results show population density had the highest contribution to forestland changes throughout the study period, with a minimum contribution of 20.02% to a maximum of 26.04%. Other significant variables over the study period are precipitation, slope, elevation and the proximity variables. The results indicate that the relative influence of the drivers to forestland conversion varies with time, location and type of transition.

Spatiotemporal Characteristics of Evapotranspiration and Driving Factors in the Bosten Lake Watershed, China

AbstractThe Bosten Lake watershed investigated in this study has seen significant land cover and climate change. The spatiotemporal relationship between evapotranspiration (ET) and environmental factors remain unclear. In this study, trend analysis and correlation methods are applied to analyze the spatiotemporal characteristics of ET and the relationship between ET and its driving factors using remotely sensed ET data and measured climate data between 2001 and 2018. During the study period, high values of ET primarily occurr in the wetlands of the plain area and the mid‐elevation mountain areas. The ET values show a significantly increasing trend in the different vegetation types due to climate change and other factors. The ET change trend in the study area is in the range of −13.4 to ≈35.9 mm per year; the desert area exhibits a significant decrease and most of the mountain areas show a significantly increasing trend. ET is significantly correlated with land surface temperature, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and solar radiation. The dominant factor affecting ET is NDVI, accounting for 15.2% of the study area. The results of this study highlight the need for appropriate land‐use strategies for managing water resources in arid land ecosystems.

Documenting the evolution and expansion of surface urban heat in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region, 2000–2019

ABSTRACT The evolution of land surface temperatures (LSTs) within the Bangkok Metropolitan Region (BMR) is examined with respect to patterns of urbanization from 2000 to 2019. Change detection as well as examinations of five periods within the 20 years yield insights into the spatial patterning of surface urban heat (SUH) within the BMR. Results suggest that the LSTs in portions of the BMR have increased more than 5°C during the 20-year period. The spatial distribution of SUH exhibits a pattern where high LSTs occur outward and primarily westward from the urban core along highways serving as development corridors and related regions of rapid urbanization. Nighttime LSTs have not increased as markedly as daytime; however, several noted “hotspots” have intensified over time and are located in districts along the southern seaboard. The greatest LST increase through the 20-year period is located in the northwest of the Bangkok urban core in Bang Kruai and Mueang Nonthaburi. A close investigation of this area indicates that the LST hotspots are co-located with rapid urban expansion into the area that has been facilitated by the destruction of orchards and other agriculture lands from a flood that occurred in 2011. The significant changes in land cover from orchards and agriculture to urban and built-up have led to the large increases in LSTs within the region.

A modified flexible spatiotemporal data fusion model

Remote sensing spatiotemporal fusion models blend multi-source images of different spatial resolutions to create synthetic images with high resolution and frequency, contributing to time series research where high quality observations are not available with sufficient frequency. However, existing models are vulnerable to spatial heterogeneity and land cover changes, which are frequent in human-dominated regions. To obtain quality time series of satellite images in a human-dominated region, this study developed the Modified Flexible Spatial-temporal Data Fusion (MFSDAF) approach based on the Flexible Spatial-temporal Data Fusion (FSDAF) model by using the enhanced linear regression (ELR). Multiple experiments of various land cover change scenarios were conducted based on both actual and simulated satellite images, respectively. The proposed MFSDAF model was validated by using the correlation coefficient (r), relative root mean square error (RRMSE), and structural similarity (SSIM), and was then compared with the Enhanced Spatial and Temporal Adaptive Reflectance Fusion Model (ESTARFM) and FSDAF models. Results show that in the presence of significant land cover change, MFSDAF showed a maximum increase in r, RRMSE, and SSIM of 0.0313, 0.0109 and 0.049, respectively, compared to FSDAF, while ESTARFM performed best with less temporal difference of in the input images. In conditions of stable landscape changes, the three performance statistics indicated a small advantage of MFSDAF over FSDAF, but were 0.0286, 0.0102, 0.0317 higher than for ESTARFM, respectively. MFSDAF showed greater accuracy of capturing subtle changes and created high-precision images from both actual and simulated satellite images.

Historical and Future Spatial and Temporal Changes in Land Use and Land Cover in the Little Ruaha River Catchment, Tanzania

Increased anthropogenic activities in the Little Ruaha River Catchment have modulated the catchment condition, nevertheless, the future changes as a result of increased anthropogenic activities are unknown. Understanding the future changes is vitally important for the design of appropriate strategies towards sustainable management of the catchment resources. This study applied Remote Sensing and GIS techniques (Jensen & Lulla, 1987) to assess the historical long-term changes in land use and land cover using Landsat satellite images of 1990, 2005 and 2015, and modelled the future change in land use and land cover up to 2040 using the stochastic CA-Markov chain (Almeida et al., 2005). The historical land use and land cover change detection results indicate that between 1990 and 2005 the area under forest changed from 39,872 ha to 22,957 ha, woodland changed from 109,692 ha to 72,809 ha, wetland decreased from 19,157 ha to 11,785 ha, the cultivated land increased from 106,782 ha to 109,047 ha, likewise, the built-up area increased from 9408 ha to 11,674 ha. Results between 2005 and 2015 show the substantial changes where the forest decline from 22,957 ha to 15,950 ha, woodland decreased from 72,809 ha to 58,554 ha and the wetland changed from 11,785 ha to 5622 ha. Cultivated land and built up area increased from 109,047 ha and 11,674 ha to 143,468 ha and 13,765 ha respectively. Generally, the study has revealed the substantial decline in forest, woodland and wetland by 23,922 ha, 51,138 ha and 13,535 ha respectively, and an increase of cultivated land and built up area by 36,668 ha and 4357 ha respectively in 15 years, between 1990 and 2015. The predicted future land use and cover for the next 15 years (2040) showed an overall increase in cultivated land, built up area, grassland and bushland to 24.82%, 2.24%, 25.18% and 20.41% respectively, and a decrease in forest, woodland and wetland in the order of 1.87%, 7.87% and 0.03% respectively. The study concludes that, there have been significant changes in land use and cover in the catchment which likely to impend the sustainability of the catchment productivity, hence recommends the holistic system thinking and analysis approach in management and utilization of catchment resources.

English

The Densu River basin is one of the most import water resources in Ghana. It is a source of drinking water to more than half of the five (5) million populations of Accra and seven other communities within the basin. Rapid population growth and increasing development pressure within the basin is changing the basin land cover into settlement. This study examined the trend in land use and land cover changes that occurred within the basin from 1986 to 2018. The results show that between the years 1986 and 2018, the area within the basin covered by settlement and bare land increased from about 3% to about 25%. Within the same period, the forest area reduced from nearly 49% to about 17%. Shrub and grassland increased from 27% to about 49%, farmland decreased from nearly 20% to about 8% and the water bodies changed only marginally, from 1.02 to 1.15%. In general, the most significant changes in land use and land cover occurred between 1986 and 2002. After 2002 the land use and land cover changes either slowed down or changed course. This can be attributed to the establishment of the Densu Basin Board in 2003. Through the board a riparian Buffer Zone Policy was developed with the aim of protecting and maintaining the vegetation cover within the basin so as to improve water quality.   Key words: River Basin, land use and land cover changes, water resources management. &nbsp

Analysis of land cover changes after the eruption of mount Sinabung using satellite imagery

After hundreds of years experiencing a dormant period, Mount Sinabung erupted again in August 2010 to the last recorded in June 2018. Within eight years, significant land cover changes were seen in the area around Mount Sinabung. This study aims to analyse changes in affected areas using satellite imagery. The spatial analysis method is used to determine changes in various land cover. High-resolution images before the 2010 eruption and the latest recording images of 2019 are used as analytical material. The analysis shows that the affected area is in east-southeast and south-southeast directions of the peak of Mount Sinabung. In the east-southeast direction, the eruption material reaches 3.5 km and 4 km in the south-southeast with an area more than eleven thousand hectares. Some villages such as Bekerah, Simacem, and Suka Meriah have even been lost covered by material from the eruption of Mount Sinabung. The area is generally covered by pyroclastic materials in the form of ash, sand, lapilli, and bombs. Most of the areas affected by the eruption are plantation areas, then forest areas and settlements areas. The conclusion are Sinabung eruption in recent years has had a very significant impact on various aspects, one of which is land cover.

Spatially explicit statistical modeling of random and systematic land cover transitions in the main grassland plain of Nech Sar National Park, Ethiopia

The main grassland plain of Nech Sar National Park (NSNP) is a federally managed protected area in Ethiopia designated to protect endemic and endangered species. However, like other national parks in Ethiopia, the park has experienced significant land cover change over the past few decades. Indeed, the livelihoods of local populations in such developing countries are entirely dependent upon natural resources and, as a result, both direct and indirect anthropogenic pressures have been placed on natural parks. While previous research has looked at land cover change in the region, these studies have not been spatially explicit and, as a result, knowledge gaps in identifying systematic transitions continue to exist. This study seeks to quantify the spatial extent and land cover change trends in NSNP, identify the strong signal transitions, and identify and quantify the location of determinants of change. To this end, the author classifies panchromatic aerial photographs in 1986, multispectral SPOT imagery in 2005, and Sentinel imagery in 2019. The spatial extent and trends of land cover change analysis between these time periods were conducted. The strong signal transitions were systematically identified and quantified. Then, the basic driving forces of the change were identified. The locations of these transitions were also identified and quantified using the spatially explicit statistical model. The analysis revealed that over the past three decades (1986–2019), nearly 52% of the study area experienced clear landscape change, out of which the net change and swap change attributed to 39% and 13%, respectively. The conversion of woody vegetation to grassland (~ 5%), subsequently grassland-to-open-overgrazed land (28.26%), and restoration of woody vegetation (0.76%) and grassland (0.72%) from riverine forest and open-overgrazed land, respectively, were found to be the fully systematic transitions whereas the rest transitions were recorded either partly systematic or random transitions. The location of these most systematic land cover transitions identified through the spatially explicit statistical modeling showed drivers due to biophysical conditions, accessibility, and urban/market expansions, coupled with successive government policies for biodiversity management, geo-politics, demographic, and socioeconomic factors. These findings provide important insights into biodiversity loss, land degradation, and ecosystem disruption. Therefore, the model for predicted probability generally suggests a 0.75 km and 0.72 km buffers which are likely to protect forest and grassland from conversion to grassland and open-overgrazed land, respectively.

Assessment of urban land cover change base on Landsat satellite data: A case study from Hanoi, Vietnam

Rapid urbanization process is accelerating the dramatic transformation of urban land cover, creating strong economic, social and environmental impacts. Many studies have achieved significant achievements in the application of Landsat satellite data to assess the land cover change. Remote sensing images of contain the necessary spectral and spatial features of the various objects. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is utilized to analyze remote sensing images of landsat satellite data and is one of the most widely used numerical indicator for calculating the visible (VIS) and near-infrared bands (NIR) of the electromagnetic spectrum. In this study, the NDVI based classification has indicated about significant change in land cover in Hanoi, Vietnam from 2001 to 2017. The study results show that a major change has been found in the vegetation cover area where about 56 km2 (accounts for 12.3%) area has been lost during the period from 2001 to 2017. This study demonstrates the importance of considering land cover change to improve the quality and optimizing the model of land use in urban areas.

Analyzing land use intensity changes within and outside protected areas using ESA CCI-LC datasets

Protected areas play an important role in protecting biodiversity and maintaining associated ecosystem services over the long term. In recent years, rapid expansion of agricultural land and settlement areas has occurred concurrently with significant changes in climate and land cover. Land-use/land-cover changes attributed to agricultural expansion and forest loss within and outside of protected areas have impacted on wildlife habitats. In this study, we selected the priority protected areas with the highest protection status (Category Ia protected areas established from 1993 to 2014) as study areas. The change rate of land use intensity index (LUII) within and outside (5 km buffer zone) of protected areas before and after the establishment was used as a criterion for determining land use intensity (LUI) changes of protected areas. Then, we used two indexes to specifically classify Category Ia protected areas. Our results showed that the establishment of protected areas avoided the increase of LUI within protected areas. The influence of the increase of LUI on protected areas in Europe was fewer than other continents. The proportion of protected areas that influenced by the increase of LUI gradually decreased from 1993 to 2014. Overall, this study reveals long-term trends related to the change of LUI within and outside Category Ia protected areas before and after the establishment, which provides basic data for current and future protected area management and conservation.

Detecting grassland cover changes through spatiotemporal outlier analysis using remotely sensed time-series data: a case study from Xilingol, China

Significant land cover change (SLCC) in grassland ecosystem includes both conversions in land cover types and critical modifications to specific land cover properties without land cover conversions. A statistics-based framework, known as spatiotemporal outlier analysis (STOA), was proposed to detect SLCC from time-series remote sensing data considering both spatial and temporal contexts. The proposed STOA combines local spatial association analysis (spatial context) and temporal variation analysis (temporal context) to extract spatiotemporal outliers. As the case study, STOA was applied to mapping SLCC on the grassland of Xilinhot, China using time-series MODIS vegetation index during 2000–2015. The results clearly revealed the anisotropic characteristics and spatio-temporal variations in the extracted SLCC, demonstrating meaningful patterns in the land cover changes (LCC). Considering the scale-effect, it is inferred that the detected SLCC is most likely attributed to human-induced impact. We conclude that STOA is a promising tool to quantify LCC for grassland ecosystems.

Modeling the hydroclimatic effects of local land use and land cover changes on the water budget in the upper Euphrates – Tigris basin

The waters of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers have always been a vital resource in the water-food-energy nexus of the Middle East region. The currently ongoing Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP) in Turkey aims to increase regional prosperity by optimizing the use of these waters for irrigation and hydropower. Since the beginning of the 1990s, the irrigation schemes and water management infrastructures within the scope of the GAP have caused significant land use and land cover (LULC) change in this semi-arid region. We employed a high resolution regional climate model to simulate the effects of irrigation induced LULC changes on the regional water and energy balances. For this purpose, historical simulations were conducted by using three land cover distributions which reflect the increase in irrigation and water surfaces. Our experiment reveals that water loss through evapotranspiration increases significantly with the areal expansion of irrigation. This increase is driven by the change in partitioning of the available energy at the surface between turbulent heat fluxes. On the one hand, a significant reduction in sensible heat flux causes local cooling by around 0.4 °C and 0.8 °C for the current and future irrigation conditions, respectively. On the other hand, the increase in latent heat flux enhances evapotranspiration and consequently atmospheric water vapor concentration. The moistening of a shallower boundary layer triggers the formation of convective clouds, which increases convective precipitation, most notably during the irrigation months. The enhanced water loss through evapotranspiration has potential to significantly alter the water budget of the GAP region. It seems that the water surplus of the headwaters region may not be enough to meet the water deficit of the GAP region in the future if the planned irrigation schemes are carried out to completion.