Sea level rise is a consequence of global climate change that has been affecting U.S. coasts with floods and storm surges. Florida is highly vulnerable because it has low-lying topography and coastlines on both the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. The City of Cape Coral, southwest Florida, has 400 miles of canals that provide waterfront property to the residents. Most of the canals are navigable, and accessible to the Gulf of Mexico. The city is particularly vulnerable to sea level rise because of its canals, site between the Matlacha Pass and the Caloosahatchee River, and development that has occurred in hazard prone areas. In this research, we used the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Sea Level Rise Calculator tool for three sea level rise scenarios for Cape Coral from 2020 to 2050 and created a Cape Coral Vulnerability Index (CCVI) using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). PCA reduced 25 variables to six factors that explained 78% of the variance in the data. The study revealed that the whole city has a medium to high vulnerability to sea level rise induced coastal flooding. Projected flooding showed the vulnerable areas for future flooding, whereas CCVI identified the vulnerable populations and their locations in the city. One important finding is that both economically stable and poor people are vulnerable in Cape Coral. This research has significant implications in disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. It can act as a guideline for the city for disaster management.

We developed a method that analyzes the quality of the cultivated cropland class mapped in the USA National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2006. The method integrates multiple geospatial datasets and a Multi Index Integrated Change Analysis (MIICA) change detection method that captures spectral changes to identify the spatial distribution and magnitude of potential commission and omission errors for the cultivated cropland class in NLCD 2006. The majority of the commission and omission errors in NLCD 2006 are in areas where cultivated cropland is not the most dominant land cover type. The errors are primarily attributed to the less accurate training dataset derived from the National Agricultural Statistics Service Cropland Data Layer dataset. In contrast, error rates are low in areas where cultivated cropland is the dominant land cover. Agreement between model-identified commission errors and independently interpreted reference data was high (79%). Agreement was low (40%) for omission error comparison. The majority of the commission errors in the NLCD 2006 cultivated crops were confused with low-intensity developed classes, while the majority of omission errors were from herbaceous and shrub classes. Some errors were caused by inaccurate land cover change from misclassification in NLCD 2001 and the subsequent land cover post-classification process.

Se examinan la media, las máximas, las mínimas y las curvas de duración del caudal anual en la cuenca de drenaje rura l no reglamentada, del río Santa Fe en el norte de Florida, 1932–2012. El riego en el área de estudio se ha más que duplicado desde 1970, aumentando de 3.400 hectáreas a cerca de 7.300 hectáreas de tierra de regadío aproximadamente. Esto influyó en una disminución del 22% en la mínima y la media del caudal en la cuenca. Se realizan cálculos de precipitación anual se para determinar si los cambios de caudal son impulsados por los cambios climáticos o por fuentes regionales de variabilidad interanual. Varias pruebas estadísticas objetivamente detectan tendencias, roturas en la serie cronológica y cambios significativos en las características hidroclimáticas. Los caudales bajos e intermedios exhiben marcados descensos tras las roturas y se reflejan en la doble masa y en las curvas de duración del caudal anual, sin embargo, los cambios en la precipitación son casi imperceptibles. La ausencia de reglamentación del caudal aguas arriba y el mayor desarrollo urbano, así como la fuerza de las señales en los caudales bajos e intermedios, sugieren que las observadas reducciones de caudal son el resultado resultan del aumento de bombeo de aguas subterráneas para el regadío a mediados de los 70.

Cultivated lands in the U.S. Midwest have been affected by soil erosion, causing soil organic carbon (SOC) redistribution in the landscape and other environmental and agricultural problems. The importance of SOC redistribution on soil productivity and crop yield, however, is still uncertain. In this study, we used a model framework, which includes the Unit Stream Power-based Erosion Deposition (USPED) and the Tillage Erosion Prediction (TEP) models, to understand the soil and SOC redistribution caused by water and tillage erosion in two agricultural fields in the U.S. Midwest. This model framework was evaluated for different digital elevation model (DEM) spatial resolutions (10-m, 24-m, 30-m, and 56-m) and topographic exponents (m=1.0–1.6 and n=1.0–1.3) using soil redistribution rates from 137Cs measurements. The results showed that the aggregated 24-m DEM, m=1.4 and n=1.0 for rill erosion, and m=1.0 and n=1.0 for sheet erosion, provided the best fit with the observation data at both sites. Moreover, estimated average SOC redistributions were 1.3±9.8g Cm−2yr−1 in field site 1 and 3.6±14.3g Cm−2yr−1 in field site 2. Spatial distribution patterns showed SOC loss (negative values) in the eroded areas and SOC gain (positive value) in the deposition areas. This study demonstrated the importance of the spatial resolution and the topographic exponents to estimate and map soil redistribution and the SOC dynamics throughout the landscape, helping to identify places where erosion and deposition from water and tillage are occurring at high rates. Additional research is needed to improve the application of the model framework for use in local and regional studies where rainfall erosivity and cover management factors vary. Therefore, using this model framework can help to improve the information about the spatial distribution of soil erosion across agricultural landscapes and to gain a better understanding of SOC dynamics within eroding and previously eroded fields.

Information on the present condition and spatiotemporal dynamics of mangrove forests is needed for land-change studies and integrated natural resources planning and management. Although several national mangrove estimates for the Philippines exist, information is unavailable at sufficient spatial and thematic detail for change analysis. Historical and contemporary mangrove distribution maps of the Philippines for 1990 and 2010 were prepared at nominal 30-m spatial resolution using Landsat satellite data. Image classification was performed using a supervised decision tree classification approach. Additionally, decadal land-cover change maps from 1990 to 2010 were prepared to depict changes in mangrove area. Total mangrove area decreased 10.5% from 1990 to 2010. Comparison of estimates produced from this study with selected historical mangrove area estimates revealed that total mangrove area decreased by approximately half (51.8%) from 1918 to 2010. This study provides the most current and reliable data regarding the Philippines mangrove area and spatial distribution and delineates where and when mangrove change has occurred in recent decades. The results from this study are useful for developing conservation strategies, biodiversity loss mitigation efforts, and future monitoring and analysis.

The Southern and Central California Chaparral and Oak Woodlands Ecoregion, which covers approximately 102,110 km2 (39,425 mi2), is characterized by a Mediterranean climate with cool, moist winters and hot, dry summers (Omernik, 1987; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1997). Natural vegetation includes chaparral (for example, manzanita, Arctostaphylos spp.) and oak (Quercus spp.) woodlands with extensive grassland and shrubland cover. The low mountains and foothills of the ecoregion border or parallel the Pacific Ocean from Mexico to Point Reyes, California, and continue inland surrounding the Central California Valley Ecoregion (fig. 1). These mountains and hills are interrupted by limited areas of flat land generally used for development or agriculture. The largest developed area in the ecoregion is the Los Angeles Basin, followed by the San Francisco Bay area and the San Diego metropolitan area (fig. 1). The largest agricultural area is the Salinas River valley south of Monterey, California. Most of the ecoregion consists of rangelands classified as grassland/ shrubland and forest land covers (figs. 1,2).

Driving forces facilitate or inhibit land-use / land-cover change. Human driving forces include political, economic, cultural, and social attributes that often change across time and space. Remotely sensed imagery provides regional land-change data for the Northern Piedmont, an ecoregion of the United States that continued to urbanize after 1970 through conversion of agricultural and forest land covers to developed uses. Eight major driving forces facilitated most of the land conversion; other drivers inhibited or slowed change. A synergistic web of drivers may be more important in understanding land change than individual drivers by themselves.

"A Review of "The Power of Place: Geography, Destiny, and Globalization's Rough Landscape"." , 109(1), p. 41

Land cover and land use changes can have a wide variety of ecological effects, including significant impacts on soils and water quality. In rural areas, even subtle changes in farming practices can affect landscape features and functions, and consequently the environment. Fine-scale analyses have to be performed to better understand the land cover change processes. At the same time, models of land cover change have to be developed in order to anticipate where changes are more likely to occur next. Such predictive information is essential to propose and implement sustainable and efficient environmental policies. Future landscape studies can provide a framework to forecast how land use and land cover changes is likely to react differently to subtle changes. This paper proposes a four step framework to forecast landscape futures at fine scales by coupling scenarios and landscape modelling approaches. This methodology has been tested on two contrasting agricultural landscapes located in the United States and France, to identify possible landscape changes based on forecasting and backcasting agriculture intensification scenarios. Both examples demonstrate that relatively subtle land cover and land use changes can have a large impact on future landscapes. Results highlight how such subtle changes have to be considered in term of quantity, location, and frequency of land use and land cover to appropriately assess environmental impacts on water pollution (France) and soil erosion (US). The results highlight opportunities for improvements in landscape modelling.

The ecoregions of the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain, Southeastern Plains, Piedmont, and Blue Ridge provide a continuum of land cover from the Atlantic Ocean to the highest mountains in the East. From 1973 to 2000, each ecoregion had a unique mosaic of land covers and land cover changes. The forests of the Blue Ridge Mountains provided amenity lands. The Piedmont forested area declined, while the developed area increased. The Southeastern Plains became a commercial forest region, and most agricultural lands that changed became forested. Forests in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain declined, and development related to recreation and retirement increased. The most important drivers of land conversion were associated with commercial forestry, competition between forest and agriculture, and economic and population growth. These and other drivers were modified by each ecoregion's unique suitability and land use legacies with the result that the same drivers often produced different land changes in different ecoregions.

Twenty-five million Americans play golf on the nation's 16,000 courses each year. These golf courses constitute a significant national landscape feature. Since 1878, when the game arrived in the United States, golf has filtered down the urban, economic, and social hierarchies to become accepted by and accessible to most Americans. During the ensuing thirteen decades the number, location, and layout of the nation's golf courses have responded to many of the same driving forces that impacted the nation, including decentralization, growth of the middle class, war, economic depression, suburbanization, and the increasing role federal government. Four epochs of golf-course growth and diffusion show the growing acceptance of the sport and depict where courses were most likely to be constructed as a result of the prevailing forces of each epoch.

The United States has a highly varied landscape because of wide-ranging differences in combinations of climatic, geologic, edaphic, hydrologic, vegetative, and human management (land use) factors. Land uses are dynamic, with the types and rates of change dependent on a host of variables, including land accessibility, economic considerations, and the internal increase and movement of the human population. There is a convergence of evidence that ecoregions are very useful for organizing, interpreting, and reporting information about land-use dynamics. Ecoregion boundaries correspond well with patterns of land cover, urban settlement, agricultural variables, and resource-based industries. We implemented an ecoregion framework to document trends in contemporary land-cover and land-use dynamics over the conterminous United States from 1973 to 2000. Examples of results from six eastern ecoregions show that the relative abundance, grain of pattern, and human alteration of land-cover types organize well by ecoregion and that these characteristics of change, themselves, change through time.