Humboldt University Remote Sensing Laboratory

Research Collaborations

Post-USSR land cover change in Eastern Europe – socioeconomic forcings, effects on biodiversity, and future scenarios

The basic scientific question underlying this study is to determine controls and forcings of land cover change. The breakdown of the USSR in 1990 offers a unique ‘natural experiment’ to test hypotheses on the relative importance of environmental versus socioeconomic factors and local decision-making versus broad-scale political and institutional change as forcings of LULCC. Due to post-USSR socioeconomic and political changes, more than half of the agricultural land is out of production in some regions and is undergoing succession to grass- and shrublands. Effectively, Eastern Europe is ‘re-wilding’ and that may offer opportunities for biodiversity conservation. This will be examined with a habitat suitability analysis for umbrella species for biodiversity.
This study proposes to: (1) Monitor land use and land cover change (LULCC) in Eastern Europe from 1985 to 2002 using MODIS and Landsat (“How is the global Earth changing?”); (2) Examine the role of socioeconomics and political changes as primary forcing functions affecting LULCC (“What are the primary forcing functions?”); (3) Examine effects of LULCC in Eastern Europe on habitat availability for umbrella species for biodiversity (“How does the Earth system respond to changes?”); and (4) Spatially model potential future LULCC scenarios across Eastern Europe and examine potential biodiversity changes (”How well can we predict the changes to the Earth system?”). The goal of the education plan is to increase geographic and environmental literacy and to highlight the role that remote sensing can play in understanding patterns and processes of LULCC and impacts for conservation. Activities will be (1) the development of a internet page where students can follow movements of a radio-collared bison, brown bear, and saiga antelope, and develop wildlife habitat models, and (2) a summer research intern program for young scientists from Eastern Europe interested in LULCC and remote sensing science.

Principal Institution:
SILVIS Lab external Link

- Spatial analysis for conservation and sustainability
Dept. of Forest Ecology & Management
University of Wisconsin - Madison

Principal Investigators:
Prof. Dr. Volker C. Radeloff, Prof. Dr. Patrick Hostert

Project Investigator:
Tobias Kuemmerle

Funding:
NASA New Investigators Programme

Duration:
01/2005 – 12/2007


			Projects
	overview Research Projects of the Geomatics Lab: Data integration and data mining DHAKA-INNOVATE DeSurvey EnMAP-Box EnMAP Core Science Team Environmental justice Graduate School on Urban Ecology Land changes in Albania and Kosovo Linking urban land use characteristics and mental illness Metrik Modeling cropland dynamics in Romania Modeling with domain-specific languages Risk model of Dengue Disease in Malaysia Social and health characteristics in urban areas Urban Environmental Monitoring Urban Environmental Monitoring II Urban growth in Greater Tirana Research Collaborations: ESF Exploratory Workshop: EuCaRe EARSeL workshop Post-USSR land cover Rapid urbanization Other Projects of the Geomatics Lab: Geodateninfrastruktur imageSVM		Research Collaborations Post-USSR land cover change in Eastern Europe – socioeconomic forcings, effects on biodiversity, and future scenarios The basic scientific question underlying this study is to determine controls and forcings of land cover change. The breakdown of the USSR in 1990 offers a unique ‘natural experiment’ to test hypotheses on the relative importance of environmental versus socioeconomic factors and local decision-making versus broad-scale political and institutional change as forcings of LULCC. Due to post-USSR socioeconomic and political changes, more than half of the agricultural land is out of production in some regions and is undergoing succession to grass- and shrublands. Effectively, Eastern Europe is ‘re-wilding’ and that may offer opportunities for biodiversity conservation. This will be examined with a habitat suitability analysis for umbrella species for biodiversity. This study proposes to: (1) Monitor land use and land cover change (LULCC) in Eastern Europe from 1985 to 2002 using MODIS and Landsat (“How is the global Earth changing?”); (2) Examine the role of socioeconomics and political changes as primary forcing functions affecting LULCC (“What are the primary forcing functions?”); (3) Examine effects of LULCC in Eastern Europe on habitat availability for umbrella species for biodiversity (“How does the Earth system respond to changes?”); and (4) Spatially model potential future LULCC scenarios across Eastern Europe and examine potential biodiversity changes (”How well can we predict the changes to the Earth system?”). The goal of the education plan is to increase geographic and environmental literacy and to highlight the role that remote sensing can play in understanding patterns and processes of LULCC and impacts for conservation. Activities will be (1) the development of a internet page where students can follow movements of a radio-collared bison, brown bear, and saiga antelope, and develop wildlife habitat models, and (2) a summer research intern program for young scientists from Eastern Europe interested in LULCC and remote sensing science. Principal Institution: SILVIS Lab - Spatial analysis for conservation and sustainability Dept. of Forest Ecology & Management University of Wisconsin - Madison Principal Investigators: Prof. Dr. Volker C. Radeloff, Prof. Dr. Patrick Hostert Project Investigator: Tobias Kuemmerle Funding: NASA New Investigators Programme Duration: 01/2005 – 12/2007