Vital Sign Monitoring: Landscape Dynamics
Description & Rational
Through the use of satellite and aerial imagery, GIS data layers, and ground truthing techniques, landscape dynamics monitoring in PACN parks provides information on land use and land cover change. This monitoring protocol outlines differences between natural and anthropogenic causes of land-condition change and allows natural resource managers to minimize the effects of changes in land cover, increased pollution sources, increased avenues for exotic species, and audio/visual change. An assessment of land-cover changes over time provides estimates of habitat changes within and around parks and can identify ecosystems of concern.
Brief Monitoring Questions & Objectives
Question: What is the current (10 years old or less) land cover / land use within and surrounding PACN parks?
Objective: The PACN I&M network is working with the National Park Service vegetation mapping program to submit a proposal for vegetation mapping for PACN parks to NPS standards (1:12,000 scale using imagery less than 5 years old). When complete, this vegetation map will serve as the baseline for the landscape dynamics protocol monitoring. Until it is available, the 2006 Hawaii GAP analysis landcover product will be aggregated to the alliance level in order to provide an interim physiognomic landcover description for the Hawaiian PACN parks. The landcover map developed by the USFS for the far Pacific islands containing NPS parks will be used as the interim landcover for those parks.
Question: What land use changes (and trends) are occurring within and adjacent to the PACN parks?
Objectives:Document landscape dynamics for PACN parks every 10 years, identifying spatial and temporal characteristics of land use / land cover changes. A remote sensing based change vector analysis will be used to identify areas that have changed since the last analysis. Finer scale or field data will then describe change conditions. Map the distribution and density of infrastructure (e.g., roads and developments) within the wildland-urban interface of PACN parks every 5 years. Use tax assessor and US Census Bureau data, in addition to the current land use data identified above, to map the distribution and density of human habitation (e.g., population and housing density) within the wildland-urban interface surrounding PACN parks every 3-10 years.
Vital Sign Monitoring Status & Trends
Protocol text and standard operating procedures are currently being written and tested. Dr Barbara Gibson at the University of Hawaii, with the assistance of graduate student Miguel Castrence, is testing the change vector approach developed by NCCN for application to PACN tropical settings. A pilot analysis has been completed for a study area in Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park and is now being extended to the scale of the entire Landsat image. Results will be available in May 2007. The team plans to have the protocol ready for external review in July 2008.
- Protocol Documents (in development)
- Hawaii Biodiversity and Mapping Program
- USFS Far Pacific Islands mapping
- Remote Sensing in the NPS
- Landscape-scale Monitoring Resources
- Landscape Dynamics Monitoring Movie – Coming Soon!
- Landscape Dynamics Monitoring Photo Gallery - Coming Soon!
Contact Information
Principal Investigators:
Barbara (Annie) Gibson, Ph.D.
Director, Hawaii Biodiversity and Mapping Program
and Assistant Research Professor, CCRT/PBRC
University of Hawaii at Manoa
677 Ala Moana Blvd, STE 705
Honolulu, HI 96813
bgibson <at> hawaii.edu
Melia Lane-Kamahele, Supervisory Cartographer/GIS Coordinator
National Park Service, Pacific West Region, Honolulu Office
300 Ala Moana Boulevard, Box 50165, Room 6-226
Honolulu, Hawaii 96850
melia_lane-kamahele <at> nps.gov