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The Land Use Calculator is a tool for rapid scenario analysis of land-use implications, useful for decision-makers to address real-world challenges and for classroom teaching of conservation biology, sustainable development, environmental economics and global change biology. It is a decision-support tool targeted at land-use decision-makers in the tropic, allowing users to evaluate the implications and tradeoffs of pursuing alternative development scenarios by simultaneously accounting for the societal priorities of agricultural production, economic development, carbon conservation and biodiversity protection. Users specify a few environmental and socioeconomic parameters describing a landscape scenario, and the tool determines the implications of that scenario in terms of biodiversity, carbon stocks, greenhouse-gas emissions, financial returns of the land and employment opportunities.

"BioCarbon Tracker uses satellite data and advanced methods to map the ecosystems where biocarbon is stored, identify vegetation at risk from land use change and monitor where high biocarbon stock land such as forest is converted to agriculture."

journalist Fred Pearce reports on how the rapid spread of community-based, digital mapping is helping indigenous groups worldwide to claim ownership of their lands and protect them from logging and other outside development. From the Congo, to Guyana, to the Australian outback, local communities are increasingly using GPS technology and Google Earth to document their traditional forests, hunting areas, burial grounds, and important cultural sites. As Pearce writes, the aim is to produce maps that governments cannot ignore and that can assist local people in saving their homelands

Google's global, zoomable time-lapse map illustrates land use change phenomena such as the sprouting of Dubai's artificial Palm Islands, the retreat of Alaska's Columbia Glacier, deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon, and urban growth in Las Vegas. "Using Google Earth Engine technology, we sifted through 2,068,467 images-a total of 909 terabytes of data-to find the highest-quality pixels (e.g., those without clouds), for every year since 1984 and for every spot on Earth. We then compiled these into enormous planetary images, 1.78 terapixels each, one for each year. As the final step, we worked with the CREATE Lab at Carnegie Mellon University, recipients of a Google Focused Research Award, to convert these annual Earth images into a seamless, browsable HTML5 animation."

"In this 50-question activity, you will determine the best locations to site a wind energy farm in Colorado. You will use GIS as your primary investigative tool and use spatial analysis techniques to consider the best site. You will consider highways, wind speed, cities, size of polygon, contiguity, elevation, federal land, and will perform a number of geoprocessing functions including dissolve, intersect, erase, join, and more to arrive at your conclusion. "

Multimedia, lessons, data, and background information about the Great Lakes. Includes a "Listen to the Lake" podcast and several webcams. Lessons to download relate to watershed land use, fish life cycles, invasive species, human population, and others.

A downloadable US forest map assembled from space-based radar, satellite sensors, computer models, and a massive amount of ground-based data. It is possibly the highest resolution and most detailed view of forest structure and carbon storage ever assembled for any country. "Trees are one of Earth's largest banks for storing the carbon that gets emitted by natural processes and human activities. Forests cover about 30 percent of the planet's surface, and as much as 45 percent of the carbon stored on land is tied up in forests."

"ut the truth is that satellites are so last century-so much, in fact, that scientists have begun using them to document historical changes. The above picture, from NASA's 38-year-old Landsat program, shows the Lake Djoudj region of Senegal during a drought in 1979 and during a flood 20 years later. Even at this small scale it's clear how much information the pictures contain about how the land has changed."

Videos include: - What is the Global Food System? - Land Use Change and Agriculture - Food Security - Water and Agriculture - Climate Change, Agriculture, and NASA

Fast and easy access to dynamic worldwide, multi-spectral, multi-temporal Landsat data for your projects. This is a great resource for observing and analyzing land use changes.

How do you effectively prioritize conservation decisions for migratory species? Is it better to target species when breeding, wintering, migrating or some mix? How do you build forecast changes in climate and land use when making these decisions?

"Watch the countries on the map change their size. Instead of land mass, the size of each country will represent the data for that subject --both its share of the total and absolute value."

This map is designed to be used as a base map by marine GIS professionals and as a reference map by anyone interested in ocean data. The base map includes bathymetry, marine water body names, undersea feature names, and derived depth values in meters. Land features include administrative boundaries, cities, inland waters, roads, overlaid on land cover and shaded relief imagery.

You are the BEST, Mike!

Learn more about the kinds of data available and download data. Use these tools to turn data into the useful information your organization needs. Update your skills by participating in one of these training programs. See how data and tools are used to address coastal management issues.

UC SANTA BARBARA (US) - Human land-use activity has begun to change the regional water and energy cycles of parts of the Amazon basin. A new study published in the journal Nature also shows ongoing interactions of deforestation, fire, and climate change have the potential to alter carbon storage, rainfall patterns, and river discharge on an even larger scale.

Jim found this site but is too shy to post it on Diigo. It has side-by-side imagery showing 1975, 2000, and change in vegetative cover in that time interval. Searchable by location.

Great connection to "Bird's Eye View of Changing Landscapes." "China's Pearl River Delta has experienced massive urbanization since the early 1970s. Derived from Landsat imagery, this animation shows urban expansion between 1973 and 1999."

bad maps

From Cartastrophe Blog: "Yesterday evening, I was having a conversation with one of my roommates about Beaver Island, which lay in the north of Lake Michigan. It's a sizable chunk of land with some interesting history. It was, at one point in the 19th century, home to a kingdom inhabited by a breakaway Latter-Day Saints sect, until the US government facilitated the assassination of its eccentric ruler and the ejection of the Mormon settlers. While mentioning the island to my roommate, I pulled up Google Maps in order to show him where it is. Except it wasn't there. An entire archipelago, in fact, was missing from the map."

Students use current Earth image data to explain the movement of land animals tracked by satellites.