Coordinating Approaches for Utilizing Remote Sensing-Earth Observation (RS/EO) Data to Monitor and Report Landscape Dynamics in and Around Protected Areas

A cooperative meeting sponsored by Parks Canada Agency, Canadian Space Agency, U.S. National Park Service, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the Canadian Centre for Remote Sensing

March 1-3, 2005, St. Petersburg, Florida

Click HERE to visit the meeting proceedings page.

Contacts:
John Gross, National Park Service, (970) 267-2111, John_Gross@nps.gov
Don McLennan, Parks Canada Agency/Agence Parcs Canada, (819) 953-6464, Donald.McLennan@pc.gc.ca
Woody Turner, NASA, (202) 358-1662, woody.turner@hq.nasa.gov

Background
The US National Park Service (NPS) and Parks Canada Agency (PCA) are both charged with protecting and restoring ecological values in a protected areas located from the South Pacific to well north of the arctic circle. Changes in land cover and land use dynamics in and around protected areas will, to a large extent, determine our ability to preserve ecological integrity and biodiversity in Parks. To manage parks in a changing landscape context, remote sensing/earth observation (RS/EO) data will be needed to monitor and report on landscape change in the context of the health of protected areas. PCA is supported in its RS/EO initiatives by the Canadian Space Centre (CSA) and the Canadian Centre for Remote Sensing (CCRS), and the NPS by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Given this clear overlap in agency mandates and management challenges, we are sponsoring an inter-agency workshop to focus international expertise on technical aspects of using RS/EO data to monitor and report changes in landscape characteristics in and around protected areas.

Workshop Objectives
The general objective of the workshop is to bring together relevant subject experts to identify and discuss technology and approaches for monitoring long-term landscape dynamics in and around protected areas. Specifically we want to address the following questions and objectives.

Specific Objectives include (see the draft agenda for more detail):

Specifically, we want to address the following topics and questions and objectives.

Objective 1: Workshop Context.
What are the key ecological issues and where are the key opportunities for the agencies (NPS/PCA/NASA/CSA/CCRS) to work together to develop coordinated technological and scientific approaches to problem solving?

Objective 2: Landscape Dynamics.
Summarize and compare present approaches to vegetation change, landscape fragmentation, and ecosystem productivity and condition that are being used or developed by the NPS and PCA programs, to assess the usefulness of standardized approaches and the implications of technological evolution.

Objective 3: The Road Forward.
Working Together to use RS/EO Data to Monitor Landscape Dynamics in and around Protected Areas. Identify opportunities and chart a path forward to work together for the mutual benefit of all agencies.

Location
The workshop will be held at the USGS Center for Coastal & Watershed Studies in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Center is Center is located at 600 4th Street South, St. Petersburg (directions).

Flights and shuttles
You can fly into either the Tampa or St. Petersburg airport. St. Petersburg is closer, but usually more expensive. From either airport, a cab or the Super Shuttle can provide transport to the hotel. Shuttle prices are $22 (Tampa) or $18 (St. Pete), and a cab is about twice this price ($45 and $30, respectively). It you rent a car at the Tampa airport, be aware there are no gas stations near the airport.

Background information:
Confirmed participants
Key backgroud papers
Links to programs
Case studies
Roads
Indices
Disturbance
Boundaries
Landscape pattern / fragmentation
Freshwater Resources
Other references

Key backgroud papers
Most important
Parks Canada and CCRS. 2004. Using satellite remote sensing technology to monitor and assess ecosystem integrity and climate change in Canada's National Parks. GRIP Proposal, 2004. 1.7 MB
GRIP Team. 2005. Data processing flow diagram (1 page, 48 KB)
Turner, W., S. Spector, N. Gardiner, M. Fladeland, E. Sterling, and M. Steininger. 2003. Remote sensing for biodiversity science and conservation. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 18:306-314. 864 KB
DeFries, R. and S. Pagiola. 2004. DRAFT: Millennium Ecosystem Assessment: Condition and Trends Assesment Chapter 3. Analytical approaches for assessing ecosystem condition and human well-being. 950 KB

Reviews
Coppin, P., I. Jonckheere, K. Nackaerts, B. Muys, and E. Lambin. 2004. Digital change detection methods in ecosystem monitoring: a review. International Journal of Remote Sensing 25:1565-1596. 184 KB
Faundeen, J. L., I. Petiteville, D. Clark, and T. Fisher. 2004. Global environmental databases from CEOS agencies. Pages 752 ff in:XXth ISPRS Congress. This is the very best recent and very concise summary of remote sensing platforms that I've come across. 2.7 MB
Hansen, A. J., R. DeFries, and W. Turner. 2004. Land use change and biodiversity: A synthesis of rates and consequences during the period of satellite imagery. Pages 277-299 in: G. Gutman and C. Justice, eds. Land change science: Observing, monitoring, and understanding trajectories of change on the Earth's surface. Springer Verlag, New York, N.Y. 2.2 MB
Kerr, J. T. and M. Ostrovsky. 2003. From space to species: ecological applications for remote sensing. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 18:299-305. 940 KM
Lefsky, M. A. and W. B. Cohen. 2003. Selection of remotely sensed data. Pages 13-46 in: M. A. Wulder and S. E. Franklin, eds. Remote sensing of forest environments - concepts and case studies. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordnecht. 2.0 MB

Studies
Borak, J. S., E. F. Lambin, and A. H. Strahler. 2000. The use of temporal metrics for land cover change detection at coarse spatial scales. International Journal of Remote Sensing 21:1415-1432. 281 KB
Diaz-Delgado, R., F. Lloret, X. Pons, and J. Terradas. 2002. Satellite evidence of decreasing resilience in mediterranean plant communities after recurrent fires. Ecology 83:2293-2303. 211 KB
Goetz, S.J., C.A. Jantz, S.D. Prince, A.J. Smith, D. Varlyguin, and R.K. Wright.  2004. Integrated analysis of ecosystem interactions with land use change: the Chesapeake Bay watershed. In Ecosystems and Land Use Change, ed. R.S. DeFries, G.P. Asner, and R.A. Houghton, 263-275. American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC. BIG - 11.0 MB
Lefsky, M. A., W. B. Cohen, and T. A. Spies. 2001. An evaluation of alternate remote sensing products for forest inventory, monitoring, and mapping of Douglas-fir forests in western Oregon. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 31:78-87. 257 KB
Mas, J.-F. 1999. Monitoring land-cover changes: a comparison of change detection techniques. International Journal of Remote Sensing 20:139-152. 207 KB
Pfaff, A.S.P; Sanchez-Azofeifa, G.A. 2004. Deforestation pressure and biological reserve planning: a conceptual approach and an illustrative application for Costa Rica. Resource and Energy Economics 26:237-254. 434 KB
Phinn, S. R., D. A. Stow, J. Franklin, L. A. K. Mertes, and J. Michaelsen. 2003. Remotely sensed data for ecosystem analyses: combining hierarchy theory and scene models. Environmental Management 31:429-441. 3.3 MB
Riitters, K. H. and J. D. Wickham. 2003. How far to the nearest road? Frontiers in Ecology and Environment 1:125-129. 2.5 MB
Riitters, K. H., J. D. Wickham, and J. W. Coulston. 2004. Use of road maps in national assessments of forest fragmentation in the United States. Ecology and Society 9:13 (online) http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol9/iss2/art3. 970 KB
Sanchez-Azofeifa, G. A., G. C. Daily, A. Pfaff, and C. Busch. 2003. Integrity and isolation of Costa Rica's national parks and biological reserves: examining the dynamics of land-cover change. Biological Conservation 109:123-135. 463 KB
Wang, Y. and D. K. Moskovits. 2001. Tracking fragmentation of natural communities and changes in land cover: applications of Landsat data for conservation in an urban landscape (Chicago wilderness). Conservation Biology 15:835-843. 835 KB


Links to sponsor programs
NPS Monitoring home page
Parks Canada Inventory and Monitoring
Canadian Center for Remote Sensing
NASA - Life on Earth

NPS Inventory and Monitoring Program Information
Download: Narrative Summary of I&M and Relevant NPS Activities Using of Remotely Sensed (RS) Data  MS-Word. 160 KB.
View or Download Summary table of Current I&M Landscape/RS Projects.
Map of I&M Networks View / download color map.
Download Woodward 2002.   Use of remote sensing for long-term ecological monitoring in the North Coast and Cascades Network: Summary of a Workshop. Pdf format, 576 KB.

Remote sensing acroynms and data summary
Acronyms commonly used by the RS community.  
Download Table of RS data sources and characteristics.   MS Word format, 93 KB.

Case studies
Download Hansen and Gryskiewicz 2003.   Final report on land use change for HTLN. Very good conceptual framework for evaluating land use/cover change and impacts on preserve areas. Tables 1 & 3 are valuable for linking LULCC to ecological processes and for identifying sources of data. Zipped MS-Word, 830 KB.
Roundtable on Sustainable Forests   This is a key group, endorsed by USFS, focused on developing criteria and indicators. See their "Background Information and Links" page for links to other roundtables.
Sustainable Rangelands Roundtable   This roundtable has about 100 participants, and they have produced a very comprehensive report on indicators for soil, water, animals, etc. in rangelands.

Roads
Ercelawn,A. 1999. End of the road. NRDC, online (199 pages in printed form). This is an outstanding review of the impacts of roads on systems and wildlife.
Forman, R.T.T. and L.E. Alexander. 1998. Roads and their major ecological effects. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 29:207-231. 2.2 MB.
Heilman Jr., G. E., J. R. Strittholt, N. C. Slosser, and D. A. Dellasala. 2002. Forest fragmentation of the conterminous United States: Assessing forest intactness through road density and spatial characteristics. BioScience 52:411-422. (large file - 8 MB)
Lugo, A.E. and H.Gucinski. 2000. Function, effects, and management of forest roads. Forest Ecology and Management 133:249-262. 1.0 MB.
Riitters, K.H. and J.D. Wickham. 2003. How far to the nearest road? Frontiers in Ecology and Environment 1:125-129. (color, 2.5 MB)
Trombulak, S.C. and C.A. Frissell. 2000. Review of ecological effects of roads on terrestrial and aquatic communities. Conservation Biology 14:18-30. 1.5 MB

Indices
Cullinan, V.I. and J.M. Thomas. 1992. A comparison of quantitative methods for examining landscape pattern and scale. Landscape Ecology 7:211-227.
Gustafson, E.J. 1998. Quantifying landscape spatial pattern: What is the state of the art? Ecosystems 1:143-156.
Ludwig, J. A., R. W. Eager, G. N. Bastin, V. H. Chewings, and A. C. Liedloff. 2002. A leakiness index for assessing landscape function using remote sensing. Landscape Ecology 17:157-171.
Opdam, P., J. Verboom, and R. Pouwels. 2003. Landscape cohesion: an index for the conservation potential of landscapes for biodiversity. Landscape Ecology 18:113-126. 940 KB
Turner, M.G. 1990. Spatial and temporal analysis of landscape patterns. Landscape Ecology 4:21-30.
Vos, C.C., J. Verboom, P.F.M. Opdam, and C.J.F. Ter Braak. 2001. Toward ecologically scaled landscape indices. American Naturalist 183:24-41. 226 KB

Disturbance
Turner, M.G., W.H. Romme, R.H. Gardner, R.V. O'Neill, and T.K. Kratz. 1993. A revised concept of landscape equilibrium: disturbance and stability on scaled landscapes . Landscape Ecology 8:213-227.
White, P. S., J. Harrod, W. H. Romme, and J. Betancourt. 1999. Disturbance and temporal dynamics. Pages 566-584 in: W. T. Sexton, A. J. Malk, R. C. Szaro, and N. C. Johnson. Ecological stewardship: A common reference for ecosystem management, vol. II. Elsevier Science, Ltd., Oxford, UK. (Large file - 3.1 MB).
White, P. S. and A. Jentsch. 2001. The search for generality in studies of disturbance and ecosystem dynamics. Progress in Botany 62:399-449. (Large file - 2.5 MB).

Ecological Boundaries and Edges
Cadenasso, M. L., et al. 2003  . An interdisciplinary and synthetic approach to ecological boundaries. Bioscience 53:717-722.
Cadenasso, M. L., et al. 2003. A framework for a theory of ecological boundaries. Bioscience 53:750-758.
Strayer, D. L., et al. 2003. A classification of ecological boundaries. Bioscience 53:723-729.

Lanscape pattern / fragmentation
Bissonette, J.A. and I. Storch. 2002.  Fragmentation: Is the message clear? Conservation Ecology 6:[online] URL: http://www.consecol.org/vol6/iss2/art14.
Responses to Bissonette and Storch: Boagaert 2003 and Bissonette and Storch 2003
Harrison, S. and E. Bruna. 1999. Habitat fragmentation and large-scale conservation: what do we know for sure? Ecography 22:225-232.
McGarigal, K. and S.A. Cushman. 2002. Comparative evaluation of experimental approaches to the study of habitat fragmentation effects. Ecological Applications 12:335-345. 120 KB.
Riitters, K. H., J. D. Wickham, R. V. O'Neill, B.K. Jones, E.R. Smith, J.W. Coulston, T.G. Wade, and J.H. Smith. 2002. Fragmentation of continental United States forests. Ecosysems 5:815-822. External link; 355 K or 1.4 MB.
Kurt Riitters publications page  to see and/or download related papers

Freshwater Resources
Gergel, S.E., M.G. Turner, J. . Miller, J.M. Melack, and E.H. Stanley. 2002. Landscape indicators of human impacts to riverine systems. Aquatic Sciences 64:118-128.
Griffith, J.A. 2002. Geographic techniques and recent applications of remote sensing to landscape-water quality studies. Water, Air, and Soil Pollution 138:181-197.
Jones, K. B., A. C. Neale, M. S. Nash, R. D. VanRemortel, J. D. Wickham, K. H. Riitters, and R. V. O'Neill. 2001. Predicting nutrient and sediment loadings to streams from landscape metrics: A multiple watershed study from the United States mid-Atlantic region. Landscape Ecology 16:301-312.
Wiens, J. A. 2002. Riverine landscapes: Taking landscape ecology into the water. Freshwater Biology 47:501-515.

Other references
Papers below provide important background information, include interesting applications, are particularly insightful, or they're frequently cited.
Dale, V.H., S. Brown, R.A. Haeuber, N.T. Hobbs, N. Huntly, R.J. Naiman, W.E. Riebsame, M.G. Turner, and T. J. Valone. 2000. Ecological principles and guidelines for managing the use of land. Ecological Applications 10:639-670. 2.1 MB
Foster, D., F. Swanson, J. Aber, I. Burke, N. Brokaw, D. Tilman, and A. Knapp. 2003. The importance of land-use legacies to ecology and conservation. BioScience 53:77-88.
Gustafson, E. J. 1998. Quantifying landscape spatial pattern: What is the state of the art? Ecosystems 1:143-156.
Hansen, A.J. and D. Gryskiewicz. 2003. Interactions between Heartland National Parks and surrounding land use change: Development of conceptual models and indicators for monitoring. Unpublished report. 72 pages. 830 K, zipped.
Hansen, A.J., R. Rasker, B. Maxwell, J.J. Rotella, J.D. Johnson, A.W. Parmenter, L. Langner, W.B. Cohen, R.L. Lawrence, and M.P.V. Kraska. 2002. Ecological causes and consequences of demographic change in the new west. BioScience 52:151-162. External link.
Hansen, A.J. and J.J. Rotella. 2002. Biophysical factors, land use, and species viability in and around nature reserves. Conservation Biology 16:1112-1122. External link.
Kepner, W.G., C.J. Watts, C.M. Edmonds, J.K. Maingi, S.E. Marsh, and G. Luna. 2000. A landscape approach for detecting and evaluating change in a semi-arid environment. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 64:179-195.
Landres, P.B., P. Morgan, and F.J. Swanson. 1999. Overview of the use of natural variability concepts in managing ecological systems. Ecological Applications 9:1179-1188. 90 KB.
Levin, S. A. 1992. The problem of pattern and scale in ecology. Ecology 73:1943-1967. 4.6 MB.
McConnell, W.J. and E.F. Moran. 2000. Meeting in the middle: The challenge of meso-level integration. LUCC Report Series No. 5 University of Indiana, Bloomington, Indiana. LUCC Report Series No. 5. 56 pages. 173 KB.
Turner, M. G. 1989. Landscape ecology: the effect of pattern on process. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 20:171-197.
Turner, M. G., S. M. Pearson, P. Bolstad, and D. N. Wear. 2003. Effects of land -cover on spatial pattern of forest communities in the Southern Appalachian Mountains (USA). Landscape Ecology 18:449-464.
Urban, D. L. 2002. Tactical monitoring of landscapes. Pages 294-311 in: J. Liu and W. W. Taylor. Integrating landscape ecology into natural resource management. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
Woodroffe, R. and J.R. Ginsberg. 1998. Edge effects and the extinction of populations inside protected areas. Science 280:2126-2128.

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