The development of spatial data analysis techniques in GIS with its combination of database handling capabilities and visualization tools is currently being investigated by many geographers. One area of research is the application of spatial statistics to remotely sensed data in order to determine the spatial characteristics of landscapes. Several recent developments have aided in this work. One development is the Airborne Data Acquisition and Registration 5000 (ADAR) technology which provides remotely sensed data at a 0.5 meter resolution. ARC/INF0 7.0 GRID enhancements facilitate the conversion of imagery to raster data sets and their analysis. Also, local forms of several spatial statistics have been developed with the goal of measuring local dependence structure and heterogeneity in spatial data. The purpose of this paper is to share the results of recent exploration of 0.5 meter resolution remotely sensed landscapes using global and local spatial statistics in a GIS environment. An example is taken from ADAR imagery of semi-arid shrubland and grassland vegetation communities of the northern Chihuahuan desert of New Mexico.
In the course of two years of work on a biodiversity research project involving 15 gigabytes of data, 12 ecological models carried out against 10 projected land use scenarios, 150 final maps and countless drafts, we have developed a system for organizing our data, analysis processes, and cartographic production. This system facilitates efficient reprocessing of models and graphics when needed based on incremental changes in the data, and utilizes a file structure that allows efficient use of disks and back-ups. We plan to continue to use and develop this system in future research projects. In this paper, we present an overview of the system and focus on some of the more interesting problems and solutions that have come out of this work.
As technology advances , so does our ability to change our surroundings. Changes made on the surface of the Earth today are more extensive and occur more rapidly than ever before. The significance of these changes increases as the world's population grows and the available land base declines. As the price of land escalates and the debate over land use becomes more heated, the demand for timely and accurate information about land use and land cover change increases. Land managers, planners, and policy makers require methods that accurately relate changes in land cover to changes in land use. To meet this demand, Pacific Meridian Resources, under contract with NASA, has developed products and services for assessing land cover and land use change using Remote Sensing and GIS. LUCCAS, the Land Use and Cover Change Analysis System, is a GUI-based change detection application which enables users to perform their own change detection analysis. The result of the final user interface is an expert system for executing change detection applications operated entirely by "point and click" icons facilitating data entry, parameter selection, analysis systems, and output formats specifications by the users.
A map and set of descriptions of 20 ecological regions (ecoregions) of Alaska have been produced as a framework for organizing and interpreting environmental data for State-level inventory, monitoring, and research efforts. The map was derived by synthesizing information on the geographic distribution of environmental factors such as climate terrain, geology, soils, hydrology, and vegetation. This synthesis was a qualitative assessment of the distributional patterns and relative importance of these factors from place to place. This project was completed in cooperation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Colorado State University. The work in Alaska is a continuation of a program completed by the EPA for the conterminous United States and is parallel to the Ecological Land Classification Program conducted in Canada by Environment Canada. The United States and Canada have used the ecoregion units for stratification and reporting in evaluating the status of protected environments for the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna, and the USGS has used the units in its North American Land Characterization.