LCLUC Newsletter Fall 2023 | |
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Greetings!
We are pleased to present the latest developments from our LCLUC projects, Science Team members, and related land-cover and land-use change research.
This edition includes a detailed programmatic update from our Program Manager Dr. Garik Gutman, news highlights including updates on new satellite data products, webinars, and much more.
Take a moment to check out the LCLUC Hotspot Mapper product on our website that shows the geographical distribution of high impact land-use and land-cover change hotspots studied in various LCLUC projects.
We invite you to join our mailing list to receive updates about the LCLUC program!
Enjoy the updates!
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Message from the Program Manager
Dear LCLUCers, friends of LCLUC, international colleagues and friends,
In keeping with the LCLUC tradition, I will herein summarize the past year’s program achievements, and convey my best wishes to the LCLUC family and our friends around the world, and my wish for peace but perhaps more cautiously than last year.
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Dr. Son Van Nghiem Named IEEE Life Fellow
Dr. Son Nghiem, Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL), was awarded a JPL Center Award - the 2023 Voyager Award with the citation “for outstanding leadership at the international level in advancing the use of remote sensing for land use applications of high societal impact.” Moreover, Dr. Nghiem was selected as IEEE Life Fellow this year.
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Dr. Catherine Nakalembe Awarded the 2022 Al-Sumait Prize for African Development
Dr. Catherine Nakalembe has been awarded the prestigious 2022 Al-Sumait Prize for African Development, in recognition of her groundbreaking work in using remote sensing and machine learning for crop mapping and monitoring. Her efforts have significantly enhanced food security and agricultural livelihoods across Africa, particularly through the development of the Disaster Risk Financing Program and leading the NASA Harvest Africa program.
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Meghavi Prashnani Honored With ‘Emerging Leader Award’ at Geo Week Ministerial Summit 2023, Cape Town, SA
Meghavi Prashnani was awarded the 'Emerging Leader Award' at the Geo Week Ministerial Summit 2023 for her decade-long commitment to Earth Observation through various programs, including NASA Land-Cover and Land-use Change, Indian Space Research Organization, GEOGLAM, NASA Harvest and Mahalanobis National Crop Forecast Center, India. Her work primarily focuses on advancing food and water security through geospatial data.
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Dr. Lucy Hutyra recognized for Pioneering Environmental Research as a 2023 MacArthur Fellow
Dr. Lucy Hutyra, an acclaimed environmental ecologist, was recognized as a 2023 MacArthur Fellow, a testament to her significant contributions in the field of ecology, particularly in understanding the impacts of urbanization on environmental carbon cycle dynamics. Her work, which combines field observations, remote sensing, spatial analysis, and mathematical modeling, has been instrumental in shedding light on how carbon moves between different reservoirs like plants, soil, water, and air in both forests and urban settings.
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- NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) Mission Operations Science Team Find More | |
- ROSES Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology Find More | |
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SPECIAL ISSUE: Land Use Changes, Degradation and Impact on Ecosystem Services in Asia and Southeast Asia
The rapid economic development in several Asian countries is leading to land-use changes like deforestation, urbanization, and agricultural conversion, threatening essential ecosystem functions. The South/Southeast Asia Research Initiative (SARI), funded by NASA LCLUC, focuses on advancing LCLUC science in the region and fostering collaborations between US and Asian researchers. SARI, since 2015, enhances LCLUC science in Asia through projects, partnerships, and training. This Special Issue, stemming from SARI meetings in the Philippines and Malaysia in 2018 and 2019, gathers articles focusing on LCLUC, degradation, and ecosystem services in Asia. Of over 90 submissions, 30 have been accepted, providing insights into these issues and their regional impacts. Find More
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Vegetation Fires and Pollution in Asia
Vegetation fires are prevalent in several regions of the world, including South/ Southeast Asia (S/SEA). Fire occurrence and spread are influenced by fuel type, topography, climate, weather, and lightning, among others. In S/SEA, human-initiated fires are responsible for most of the incidents in addition to natural factors. Through biomass burning, vegetation fires can emit large quantities of greenhouse gases and air pollutants such as CO2, CO, NOx, CH4, non-methane hydrocarbons, and other chemical species, including aerosols that can affect air quality and health at both local and regional scales. Moreover, biomass burning pollutants can travel long distances and impact regional climate. Therefore, quantifying vegetation fires and their impacts is critical at different spatial scales.
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Global Mangrove Gains and Losses Hot Spot Explorer | |
This is a preliminary data product from a team of NASA LCLUC researchers led by PI Marc Simard. The Global Mangrove Change Drivers (GMCD v2) tool developed by Co-I David Lagomasino and Kinsey Blumenthal at East Carolina University is the central part of the LCLUC team’s project entitled “Global Hotspots of Change in Mangrove Forests”. This map shows hot spots of mangrove gains and losses globally from 2001 to 2018. Hot spots and drivers of change in mangrove extent were identified from Landsat time-series and analyzed using Emerging Hot Spot Analysis in ArcPro. Hot spots were identified using four different neighborhood scales: 3km, 5km, 10km, and 15km. Consistent hot spots are areas that were identified as hot spots at all four neighborhood scales and are displayed in the map. Drivers of mangrove loss were categorized into Cyclone, erosion, palm plantation, settlement, commodity, non-productive and other. The map also accounts for mangrove gains which can be either landward, oceanward or reestablishment. Find More | |
Recent and Upcoming Meetings | |
 |  | This international meeting facilitated the discussions on Land Cover Land Use Change (LCLUC) and its impacts, with a focus on Southeast Asian countries. The meeting marked the inaugural event for synthesizing various LCLUC issues in the region. The presentations emphasized scientific aspects and reviewed ongoing work from various projects. Synthesis presentations amalgamated diverse information, research findings, and perspectives on LCLUC-related issues in South/Southeast Asia. The meeting's overarching aim was to create a comprehensive understanding of LCLUC issues by examining them from multiple angles, including collating information, employing interdisciplinary approaches, integrating research, identifying key insights, and enhancing regional collaborations. The meeting bridged gaps, promoted collaborations, and advanced knowledge on LCLUC issues, organized around themes such as LCLUC and environmental impacts, agricultural land use, LCLUC in relation to atmosphere and air pollution, urbanization, LCLUC in forests and mountain regions, and LCLUC in the coastal zone. A key aspect of the meeting was its focus on the SARI Synthesis, and it was preceded by two days of specialized training sessions. Find More
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The Central Asia Regional Information Network (CARIN) meeting, held from September 13-17, 2023, on the shores of Issyk Kul in eastern Kyrgyzstan, gathered eminent scientists and researchers for a series of presentations and discussions. The event featured research talks from regional and international scientists, including those from the Land-Cover/Land-Use Change (LCLUC) program and various universities and institutions. Participants engaged in thematic break-out groups discussing agriculture, water, pastoral resources, hazards, urbanization, and their relation to Sustainable Development Goals and climate change. Additionally, a pre-meeting training session for early career scientists (ECS) from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, and Uzbekistan was held at the American University of Central Asia, which included scientific, technical, and professional training.Trainers included Dr. Gutman, Dr. Senay, Prof. Orunbaev, Prof. Henebry, and Dr. Monika Tomaszewska. On the final day of the meeting, each of the ECS delivered a 5-minute flash talk on their current research or research interests. The ECS cohort training has continued online with a series of six monthly webinars on professional skills delivered by Prof. Henebry. Read More
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The Joint Workshop to develop community good practices for validating cropland and crop type maps in Beltsville, MD from Sep 12-14, 2023 was co-organized by the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites Working Group on Calibration and Validation Land Product Validation subgroup Land Cover focus area (CEOS LPV Land Cover) and the Group on Earth Observations Global Agricultural Monitoring Initiative Essential Agricultural Variables Working Group (GEOGLAM EAV) and supported by the International Center for Innovation in Geospatial Analytics and Earth Observation (Int. Geo Center) at the University of Maryland. It was hosted by the USDA/ARS at the National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, Maryland, USA. The goals of the workshop were to draft community guidelines and other resources for accuracy assessment specific to cropland and crop type mapping, and to move towards consistent comparable, multi-scalar EAVs and publish these guidelines as a peer-reviewed paper. These guidelines are expected to supplement the ongoing effort of the CEOS LPV Land Cover focus area to update the validation best practice protocol for global land cover maps and the GEOGLAM Essential Agricultural Variables documentation. The main discussion topics of the workshop included, Typology of mapping EAV’s for cropland extent and crop type; Sampling design; Response design - including reference data quality; and Performance metrics / map quality. Read More | |
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Conservation policies and management in the Ukrainian Emerald Network
have maintained reforestation rate despite the war
Shumilo, L., Skakun, S., Gore, M.L, Shelestov, A., Kussul, N., Hurtt, G., Karabchuck, D., Yarotskiy V.
Nature Communications Earth & Environment 4, 443 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-023-01099-4
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 | | The Russian-Ukrainian War, ongoing since 2014, impacts an area containing Emerald Network environmental-protection sites created through the implementation of the Bern Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats. Here we explore the impact of this conflict on institutional links supporting environmental sustainability and conservation efforts. Using satellite data, we analyzed tree cover changes in the Luhansk region’s Emerald Network protected areas from 1996 to 2020. The results reveal that the implementation of Bern Convention conservation policies led to a shift from deforestation (−4% each) to reforestation (+8% and +10%) on both sides of the Emerald Network divided by the demarcation line in 2014. It also shows that despite the war, territories under Ukraine control after 2014 continued reforestation (+9%), while sites under Russian control experienced dramatic forest loss (−25%). These findings emphasize the significant consequences of warfare-induced separation of local institutions on conservation areas and underscore the positive impact of the Emerald Network establishment, both before and after the conflict’s onset. Read more
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Satellite detection of canopy-scale tree mortality and survival
from California wildfires with spatio-temporal deep learning
Dixon, D., Zhu, Y., Brown, C., Jin, Y.
Remote Sensing of Environment, Vol 298, 2023, 113842 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2023.113842
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Highlights
- A canopy-scale tree mortality detection framework is proposed with labeling workflow.
- A 3-D convolutional neural network predicts tree mortality/survival with PlanetScope.
- Scalability and robustness are demonstrated for post-fire assessment in California.
- Model performance is assessed across tree height and ecoregions.
- Included are wall-to-wall tree mortality/survival maps for 2020 California wildfires.
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Monitoring the effects of urbanization and flood hazards on
sandy ecosystem services
Dang, K.B., Pham, H.H, Nyugen T.N., Giang T.L., Pham, T.P.N, Ngheim, V.S., Nyugen, D.H., Vu.,
C.K, Bui, Q.D., Pham, H.N., Nyugen, T.T., Ngo, H.H.
Science of The Total Environment Volume 880, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.163271
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Highlights
- A Bayesian Belief Network to quantify dune ecosystem services was developed.
- Land uses/covers and flood maps respectively from ALOS and Sentinel-1 SAR data were used.
- The dynamics of sand dune ecosystem services was affected by urbanization more than floods.
- Provisioning and cultural service values of dunes in Vietnam have gradually increased since 2016.
- Regulating service value of dunes in Vietnam has decreased 1.5 % since the end of 2019.
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