HomeEcological Forecasting
Forecasting the Earth system impacts of human land use decisions and associated changes in land cover is an important goal for those interested in environmental management and sustainability science. A significant component of ecological forecastnig is to develop an improved understanding of the types and rates of land uses and land cover changes (LUCC) present with a study region. This project supportes a graduate research assistant, who took responsibility for the development and implementation of a spatial database that documents LUCC within the Kansas/Republican River basin. The GRA also assists in the analysis of the data. This analysis includes the study of nested, multi-resolution satellite remote sensing data for selected detailed study areas within the basin.
Because this research generates an enormeous quantity of spatial data which must be made available to a diverse team of researchers (e.g., geographers, ecologists, landscape architects, demographers, and agricultural economists), the GRA funded by this proposal is also responsible for assisting in the access of the data. This is made possible through the use of an ArcIMS server, where there data can be accessed remotely. The database resides on KSU servers, so it is important that there is a maintence and support system in place at KSU.