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ASSESSING LANDSCAPE CHANGE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES TO ECOLOGICAL RESOURCES AT REGIONAL SCALES A CASE STUDY FROM THE UNITED STATES MID-ATLANTIC REGION
Citation:
Jones, K B., A C. Neale, C Edmonds, M S. Nash, AND C L. Cross. ASSESSING LANDSCAPE CHANGE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES TO ECOLOGICAL RESOURCES AT REGIONAL SCALES A CASE STUDY FROM THE UNITED STATES MID-ATLANTIC REGION. Presented at INDEX2001 Conference, Rome, Italy, October 2-5, 2001.
Impact/Purpose:
The primary objectives of this research are to:
Develop methodologies so that landscape indicator values generated from different sensors on different dates (but in the same areas) are comparable; differences in metric values result from landscape changes and not differences in the sensors;
Quantify relationships between landscape metrics generated from wall-to-wall spatial data and (1) specific parameters related to water resource conditions in different environmental settings across the US, including but not limited to nutrients, sediment, and benthic communities, and (2) multi-species habitat suitability;
Develop and validate multivariate models based on quantification studies;
Develop GIS/model assessment protocols and tools to characterize risk of nutrient and sediment TMDL exceedence;
Complete an initial draft (potentially web based) of a national landscape condition assessment.
This research directly supports long-term goals established in ORDs multiyear plans related to GPRA Goal 2 (Water) and GPRA Goal 4 (Healthy Communities and Ecosystems), although funding for this task comes from Goal 4. Relative to the GRPA Goal 2 multiyear plan, this research is intended to "provide tools to assess and diagnose impairment in aquatic systems and the sources of associated stressors." Relative to the Goal 4 Multiyear Plan this research is intended to (1) provide states and tribes with an ability to assess the condition of waterbodies in a scientifically defensible and representative way, while allowing for aggregation and assessment of trends at multiple scales, (2) assist Federal, State and Local managers in diagnosing the probable cause and forecasting future conditions in a scientifically defensible manner to protect and restore ecosystems, and (3) provide Federal, State and Local managers with a scientifically defensible way to assess current and future ecological conditions, and probable causes of impairments, and a way to evaluate alternative future management scenarios.
Description:
There is a growing concern about broad-scale changes in landscape features and the consequences of changes on a range of ecological goods and services, including goods and services related to human health and natural systems. The US Environmental Protection Agency has developed a set of methods to assess landscape change, and a set of spatially-distributed models that help evaluate how such changes affect ecological resources and associated processes. The models were developed within the context of potential landscape stressors acting upon ecological processes and resources at multiple scales. The methodologies and resulting assessment took advantage of recent advances in computer and GIS technology, and new regional-scale databases of relatively fine scale (30 meters). In this
paper, we highlight methods used to conduct the research and assessment. We also present results of the Mid-Atlantic Region, landscape change assessment.