UMBC Geography and Environmental Systems Department

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/11603/39

A hallmark of the Department of Geography & Environmental Systems is its broadly integrative nature, drawing on the expertise of faculty with diverse backgrounds but with a common mission. Research interests among current regular departmental faculty span a broad range of topics in earth systems science, ecosystem science, human geography and urban geography, and human dimensions of global change, with application of geospatial technology to research questions across all areas of interest. Despite the diversity of research and teaching interests, there is a common focus on the importance of coupled natural and human systems and on landscape pattern in relation to human activities and their environmental consequences, and we see this as a broad programmatic thrust for our graduate degree offerings. Research based in the Department of Geography and Environmental Systems involves interdisciplinary collaborative work of local, regional and international scope.

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Distributed urban forest patch sampling detects edge effects and woodland condition for monitoring and management
(Wiley, 2025) Baker, Matthew; Yesilonis, Ian; Templeton, Laura; Shobe, Beatriz Manon; Bos, Jaelyn; Sonti, Nancy F.; Lautar, Katherine
Urban forest patches, including woodland interiors and bounding edge habitat, result from secondary succession and fragmentation of more extensive forested landscapes in the eastern United States. Management regimes, surrounding land use, and successional processes lead to distinct environments and contribute to local and regional heterogeneity. However, many woodlands are degraded due to frequent disturbance, aggressive exotic species, and heavy browsing, which stress canopies, reduce regeneration, and may reduce ecosystem services. Effective management requires rapid, repeatable assessment of forest composition, structure, and condition at the scale of local decision-making. We present and apply a protocol for characterizing urban woodlands that generates new insight into the status of urban woodlands and baseline data for change detection over time. Samples of overstory composition, ground cover, surface soil measurements, and the Schumacher Vine Encroachment Index were collected at 845 points across each of 47 patches across Baltimore, Maryland. Simple citywide summaries allowed characterization of Baltimore's urban overstories as overwhelmingly native, though dominated by a range of successional conditions. By contrast, we found that ground layers were predominantly exotic, with abundant invasives or ruderal native species benefiting from disturbed conditions. Seven overstory types were distinguished, the majority under threat from aggressive vines. Most soils showed little evidence of compaction, but variable organic content. Distributed data allowed cross-patch comparison as well as within-patch analyses along edge-to-interior gradients. Species diversity, nativity, and overstory basal area all increased toward woodland interiors, whereas soil compaction and vine encroachment decreased. Structural and compositional shifts in both overstory and ground layer species revealed indicators of edge (15.2–18.7 m) and interior (>41.5 m) conditions, as well as evidence of transitional zones with distinct patterns of biodiversity. Despite high levels of fragmentation and disturbance that challenge municipal land managers operating with limited resources, rapid, low-cost sampling enabled comparison across multiple scales, encouraging repeated sampling and adaptive response to changing forest conditions. Qualitative and quantitative analysis as well as specific examples illustrated the generic utility of the protocol for a range of applications and its ability to produce new insight enabling management action and informed conservation planning.
A convergence research approach to resolving ‘wicked problems’: Lessons from an interdisciplinary research team in land use science
(Elsevier, 2025-04-01) Devine, Jennifer A.; Magliocca, Nicholas R.; McSweeney, Kendra; Tellman, Beth; Fagan, Matthew E.; Sesnie, Steven E.; Nielsen, Erik
Many contemporary social and environmental problems are increasingly ‘wicked.’ Convergence research offers an effective approach to tackle wicked problems by integrating diverse epistemologies, methodologies, and expertise. Yet, there exists little discussion of how to develop and employ a convergence research approach. This article describes our collaborative research efforts to achieve convergence research and team science. For over a decade, we have sought to understand how drug trafficking activities, and the counternarcotics efforts designed to thwart them, catalyze catastrophic changes in landscapes and communities. We first discuss how understanding our wicked problem called for epistemological convergence of diverse data through a team science approach. We then unpack the potential insights and challenges of methodological convergence by drawing upon examples from our land cover and land use change analysis. Third, we argue that the nature of complex, pressing problems requires convergence research to be politically engaged and accountable to the multiple communities affected. This article aims to provide research teams insight into how to pursue epistemological and methodological convergence while attending to the inherent politics of producing knowledge about wicked problems.
Assessing life and assembling economies in the production of antibiotic-free broilers
(Sage, 2025-03-20) Lansing, David
Rising public concern about antibiotics in food production has led the broiler (chicken) industry in the United States to adopt antibiotic-free production methods. Instead of producing one kind of antibiotic-free chicken, a variety of antibiotic-free forms of production have emerged. Why did a diversity of antibiotic-free chickens emerge? Crucial to producing this variegated shift in production are practices of assessment and categorization along the broiler commodity chain. Three practices in particular – antibiotic-free labels, drug classifications and the feed conversion ratio – produce multiple ways of understanding what it means to be antibiotic free. An examination of these practices in the broiler industry reveals that these practices are more than ways to understand broilers, but also create the conditions where broilers can become objects of market exchange. They do so by demarcating points of inclusion and exclusion that allow for the economic subject positions of consumers, producers and intermediaries to emerge. In this way, epistemic practices around assessing broilers are themselves market-making interventions and create the conditions that determine what a broiler can be. Understanding the role of assessments in creating a variety of antibiotic-free broilers highlights the contingent nature of economic action and reveal a delicate process where both the broiler itself, and economic action towards the broiler, are produced together.
Application of Machine Learning for Aboveground Biomass Modeling in Tropical and Temperate Forests from Airborne Hyperspectral Imagery
(MDPI, 2025-03) Osei Darko, Patrick; Metari, Samy; Arroyo-Mora, J. Pablo; Fagan, Matthew E.; Kalacska, Margaret
Accurate operational methods used to measure, verify, and report changes in biomass at large spatial scales are required to support conservation initiatives. In this study, we demonstrate that machine learning can be used to model aboveground biomass (AGB) in both tropical and temperate forest ecosystems when provided with a sufficiently large training dataset. Using wavelet-transformed airborne hyperspectral imagery, we trained a shallow neural network (SNN) to model AGB. An existing global AGB map developed as part of the European Space Agency’s DUE GlobBiomass project served as the training data for all study sites. At the temperate site, we also trained the model on airborne-LiDAR-derived AGB. In comparison, for all study sites, we also trained a separate deep convolutional neural network (3D-CNN) with the hyperspectral imagery. Our results show that extracting both spatial and spectral features with the 3D-CNN produced the lowest RMSE across all study sites. For example, at the tropical forest site the Tortuguero conservation area, with the 3D-CNN, an RMSE of 21.12 Mg/ha (R² of 0.94) was reached in comparison to the SNN model, which had an RMSE of 43.47 Mg/ha (R² 0.72), accounting for a ~50% reduction in prediction uncertainty. The 3D-CNN models developed for the other tropical and temperate sites produced similar results, with a range in RMSE of 13.5 Mg/ha–31.18 Mg/ha. In the future, as sufficiently large field-based datasets become available (e.g., the national forest inventory), a 3D-CNN approach could help to reduce the uncertainty between hyperspectral reflectance and forest biomass estimates across tropical and temperate bioclimatic domains.
Quantitative Assessment of Environmental Site Design Versus Traditional Storage-Based Stormwater Management: Impacts on Catchment Hydrology of Minebank Run, Baltimore, MD.
(2025-04-13) Maliha, M.; Alsmadi, Mohammad; Sample, David; Wynn-Thompson, Tess; Miller, Andrew
Environmental Site Design (ESD) is a stormwater management approach that prioritizes use of infiltration-based non-structural techniques to mimic the natural hydrologic cycle by reducing impervious surfaces, slowing runoff, and increasing infiltration. Traditional storage-based stormwater management is designed for flood control by quickly diverting runoff from developed areas. This study compared the effect of ESD and only storage-based stormwater management practices on the hydrology of an urban watershed in Baltimore County, Maryland, USA. Minebank Run is a 8.47 km ² flashy urban stream with a catchment largely developed without stormwater management. A calibrated SWMM model was used to simulate changes in catchment hydrology resulting from ESD and detention basins over a 54-year period, from the onset of urbanization in 1948 to urbanization in 2001. The model results were analyzed by quantifying and comparing different hydrologic metrics to evaluate runoff quantity and flow variability. Results indicated that although storage ponds performed similarly to ESD in reducing annual maximum peak flows (43% versus 45% reduction, respectively), ESD reduced mean annual runoff coefficients significantly more than ponds (28% versus 2.7%, p < 0.0001). The Richards-Baker Index was reduced from 0.46 to 0.32 with the implementation of ESD, as compared to 0.36 with detention ponds. This study also tested the hypothesis that the impact of urbanization on the hydrology of the Minebank Run watershed would have been reduced if it had been developed with ESD. The results indicated that implementation of ESD would have reduced annual maximum peak flows by an average of 46%, annual mean runoff coefficients by 51%, and Richard Baker Index by 37%. The study provides quantitative insights into the performance of traditional and innovative stormwater management techniques at the catchment scale, illustrating the benefits of a combination of both infiltration practices and detention storage in reducing the hydrologic impacts of urbanization.
Multi?Scale Spatial Effects Determine Nest Success in Small Urban Forest Patches
(Wiley, 2025-2-28) Ohad, Paris; Studds, Colin
Urban development and resulting habitat fragmentation affect species populations and inter-specific relationships. While urban ecology research often focuses on species distribution and abundance in habitat fragments, less is known about how urban environments affect reproductive success. Here, we show that factors driving songbird nest success in small urban forest patches vary with landscape-specific edge effects and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) derived vegetation structure. Nest success declined within 30 meters of patch edge, but only in more developed urban landscapes. In addition, nest success increased along two fundamental axes of vegetation structure in urban fragments: overstory density and number of ground-to-canopy gaps. Hence, results indicate that forest fragmentation can generate sufficient variation in ecological conditions to create heterogeneity in edge effects and vegetation structure even across the limited urban development gradient. These findings expand to our understanding of fragmentation effects beyond the traditional rural-developed paradigm.
Abolishing Poverty: Toward Pluriverse Futures and Politics
(University of Georgia Press, 2023) Lawson, Victoria; Elwood, Sarah; Mendoza, Yolanda González; Reddy, Chandan
Abolishing Poverty argues for a project of relationality that refuses the whiteness of liberal poverty studies and instead centers critiques of the poverty relation and political futures disavowed under liberal governance. In disrupting poverty thinking, the author collective opens space for diverse frameworks for understanding impoverishment and articulating antiracist knowledges and political visions. The book explores new infrastructures of possibilities and political solidarities rooted in accountable relations to each other and from flights to the future that animate diverse communities.This book is boundary and genre crossing, with broad appeal to scholars of such disciplines as human geography, ethnic studies, decolonial theory, and feminist studies. As a volume, the work is unique in its primary field of human geography in the form of its making, its collective authorship, and its investigation of politics that abolish poverty thinking and engage in activism against the poverty relation produced through settler colonialism, heteropatriarchy, white supremacy, and capitalist exploitation.
Ecological and developmental history impacts the equitable distribution of services
(Wiley, 2025-03-11) Darling, Lindsay E.; Rollinson, Christine R.; Fahey, Robert T.; Morzillo, Anita T.; Johnson, Lea R.; Baker, Matthew; Aronson, Myla FJ; Hardiman, Brady S.
The ecological and developmental history of the Chicago, Illinois, region has affected the current distribution of forests therein. These same factors, along with systemic and long-lasting racial segregation, have shaped the distribution of the urban populations that benefit from the ecosystem services provided by urban forests. This study demonstrates that forest patch history is related to forest attributes like tree species composition, tree density, canopy height, and structural heterogeneity—all of which are important predictors of a forest's ability to provide ecosystem services. However, this effect of forest history was only seen in forest cores, as forest edges were similar regardless of patch history. We also found that forests in minoritized communities tended to be less able to support high levels of ecosystem services. This research indicates that, when improving green equity, it is important to consider the variable capacity of forests to provide ecosystem services.
The airborne LUnar Spectral Irradiance (air-LUSI) Mission
(NASA, 2018-10-08) Turpie, Kevin; Brown, Steve; Woodward, John; Maxwell, Steve; Larason, Thomas; Zarobila, Clarence; Grantham, Steve; Gadsden, Andrew; Cataford, Andrew; Stone, Tom
The airborne LUnar Spectral Irradiance (air-LUSI) mission is a NASA Airborne Instrument Technology Transition (AITT) project. The goal of the AITT program is to mature airborne instruments from the demonstration phase to science-capable instruments.The USGS RObotic Lunar Observatory (ROLO) model represents the most precise knowledge of lunar spectral irradiance and is used frequently as a relative calibration standard for Earth observation by space-borne sensors (Keiffer and Stone, 2005). However, apparent phase-dependent biases in ROLO limits its application for absolute radiometric calibration. The objective of air-LUSI is to provide NASA a capability to improve ROLO by measuring exo-atmospheric lunar spectral irradiance with unprecedented accuracy. Careful characterization of the Moon from above the atmosphere will make it a stable and consistent SI-traceable absolute calibration reference. This could revolutionize lunar calibration for some Earth observing satellites and would be especially beneficial to ocean color missions. Because of the high sensitivity of aquatic remote sensing to calibration (Turpie et al., 2015), improvement of lunar calibration could directly affect upcoming PACE and JPSS (VIIRS) missions, and retrospectively for the SeaWiFS, EOS (MODIS), and S-NPP (VIIRS) data records.
Refusal, Service, and Collective Agency: The Everyday and Quiet Resistance of Black Southern Activists
(University of Georgia Press, 2023) McCutcheon, Pricilla; Kohl, Ellen
Abolishing Poverty argues for a project of relationality that refuses the whiteness of liberal poverty studies and instead centers critiques of the poverty relation and political futures disavowed under liberal governance. In disrupting poverty thinking, the author collective opens space for diverse frameworks for understanding impoverishment and articulating antiracist knowledges and political visions. The book explores new infrastructures of possibilities and political solidarities rooted in accountable relations to each other and from flights to the future that animate diverse communities.This book is boundary and genre crossing, with broad appeal to scholars of such disciplines as human geography, ethnic studies, decolonial theory, and feminist studies. As a volume, the work is unique in its primary field of human geography in the form of its making, its collective authorship, and its investigation of politics that abolish poverty thinking and engage in activism against the poverty relation produced through settler colonialism, heteropatriarchy, white supremacy, and capitalist exploitation.
Relationality as Resistance: Dismantling Colonialism and Racial Capitalism
(University of Georgia Press, 2023) Gonzalez Mendoza, Yolanda
Abolishing Poverty argues for a project of relationality that refuses the whiteness of liberal poverty studies and instead centers critiques of the poverty relation and political futures disavowed under liberal governance. In disrupting poverty thinking, the author collective opens space for diverse frameworks for understanding impoverishment and articulating antiracist knowledges and political visions. The book explores new infrastructures of possibilities and political solidarities rooted in accountable relations to each other and from flights to the future that animate diverse communities.This book is boundary and genre crossing, with broad appeal to scholars of such disciplines as human geography, ethnic studies, decolonial theory, and feminist studies. As a volume, the work is unique in its primary field of human geography in the form of its making, its collective authorship, and its investigation of politics that abolish poverty thinking and engage in activism against the poverty relation produced through settler colonialism, heteropatriarchy, white supremacy, and capitalist exploitation.
The influence of urban and agricultural landscape contexts on forest diversity and structure across ecoregions
(Wiley, 2025-02-25) Schmit, John Paul; Johnson, Lea R.; Baker, Matthew; Darling, Lindsay; Fahey, Robert; Locke, Dexter H.; Morzillo, Anita T.; Sonti, Nancy F.; Trammell, Tara L. E.; Aronson, Myla F. J.; Johnson, Michelle L.
Forest patches in urban landscapes make outsized contributions to biodiversity, ecosystem function, and human health and well-being. However, urbanization can alter environmental conditions that underpin forest health. Most studies of forest health in urban landscapes have focused on few forest patches across a single metropolitan region, and synthesis is needed to understand broader patterns. We assessed variation among measures of forest health across land cover gradients and ecoregions by determining (1) whether the degree of urban, agricultural, and forested land surrounding a forest patch was reflected in differences in tree community composition, diversity, and structure and (2) whether these differences were consistent across ecoregions. We synthesized data from 17 observational studies (3334 plots) and remotely sensed land cover (1-km buffer) across four metropolitan regions (Baltimore?Washington DC, Chicago, New York City, and Philadelphia) spanning five ecoregions of the eastern deciduous forest of North America. Land cover surrounding forest patches differed among ecoregions, and forests were surrounded by heterogeneous land cover even in the most urbanized areas. Patterns of tree species composition and forest structure reflected landscape context. Forest patches surrounded by high canopy cover had greater or equal tree species diversity, density, basal area, and diversity of tree sizes relative to patches surrounded by highly agricultural or highly impervious landscapes. In contrast, there was little difference in structure and diversity between forests in highly agricultural and impervious settings. Tree species composition varied among ecoregions, yet tree community assemblages of forests in intensively urbanized areas were consistently distinct from those of forests in other contexts. Forest patches in the most urban and most agricultural landscapes shared predominantly native species communities and were characterized by low tree species diversity, basal area, and size class diversity, as well as high non-native tree abundance, highlighting commonalities among these intensive anthropogenic landscapes. These results point to both common challenges to forest health and common opportunities for forest stewardship in urban and agricultural landscapes.
Rainfall Frequency Analysis Based on Long-Term High-Resolution Radar Rainfall Fields: Spatial Heterogeneities and Temporal Nonstationarities
(AGU, 2024) Smith, James A.; Baeck, Mary Lynn; Miller, Andrew; Claggett, Elijah L.
Rainfall frequency analysis methods are developed and implemented based on high-resolution radar rainfall data sets, with the Baltimore metropolitan area serving as the principal study region. Analyses focus on spatial heterogeneities and time trends in sub-daily rainfall extremes. The 22-year radar rainfall data set for the Baltimore study region combines reflectivity-based rainfall fields during the period from 2000 to 2011 and polarimetric rainfall fields for the period from 2012 to 2021. Rainfall frequency analyses are based on non-stationary formulations of peaks-over-threshold and annual peak methods. Increasing trends in short-duration rainfall extremes are inferred from both peaks-over-threshold and annual peak analyses for the period from 2000 to 2021. There are pronounced spatial gradients in short-duration rainfall extremes over the study region, with peak values of rainfall between Baltimore City and Chesapeake Bay. Spatial gradients in 100-year, 1 hr rainfall over 20 km length scale are comparable to time trends over 20 years. Rainfall analyses address the broad challenge of assessing changing properties of short-duration rainfall in urban regions. Analyses of high-resolution rainfall fields show that sub-daily rainfall extremes are only weakly related to daily extremes, pointing to difficulties in inferring climatological properties of sub-daily rainfall from daily rainfall analyses. Changing measurement properties are a key challenge for application of radar rainfall data sets to detection of time trends. Mean field bias correction of radar rainfall fields using rain gauge observations is an important tool for improving radar rainfall fields and provides a useful tool for addressing problems associated with changing radar measurement properties.
Catchment-Scale Rain Garden Effectiveness and its Spatiotemporal Factors: A Case Study in Columbia, Maryland
(2024-01-01) Daniels, Benjamin; Yeakley, J. Alan; Geography and Environmental Systems; Geography and Environmental Systems
Rain gardens (RGs) are vegetated depressional areas that collect and infiltrate runoff, and are increasingly used to manage stormwater from detached houses in residential areas, although their catchment-scale effects are not well understood. I investigate the catchment-scale hydrologic effectiveness of residential RGs for reducing stormflow in suburban catchments, and how it varies across space and time. I developed a hydrologic model of a 3.1 km2 suburban catchment in Columbia, MD, USA, to simulate the effects of various residential RG implementation scenarios on event hydrology. I addressed the following research questions: (1) What is the capacity of residential RGs to mitigate event runoff in an intermediate-sized, suburban catchment? (2) What are the effects of spatial distribution of RGs on event runoff? and (3) What are the effects of rainfall characteristics and antecedent moisture condition (AMC) on the catchment-scale effectiveness of residential RGs for event runoff control?Using the Storm Water Management Model (SWMM), I simulated implementation of RGs at 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% of detached houses in the study catchment to determine the effects on peak flow, runoff volume, and lag time over a 3-year period. I also simulated three contrasting pairs of spatial scenarios: upstream vs. downstream, clustered vs. dispersed, and near-stream vs. far-stream RG implementation scenarios. Finally, I analyzed the influence of rainfall characteristics and AMC on the effectiveness of RGs for event runoff control in the study catchment. I found that, on average, treating 100% of residential rooftops with RGs reduced peak flows by 14.5%, reduced runoff volumes by 11.7%, and increased lag times by 2.9% for the 211 rainfall events in the simulation period. The results of the spatial scenario simulations indicated that the spatial distribution of RGs had a small but statistically significant effect (p<0.01) on event runoff. On average, peak flows and runoff volumes in the clustered scenario were 2.4% less and 0.2% less, respectively, than those of the dispersed scenario. Peaks flows and runoff volumes in the upstream scenario were 2.5% less and 0.2% more, respectively, than those of the downstream scenario, on average. Peak flows and runoff volumes for the near-stream scenario were 1.1% more and 0.3% more, respectively, than those of the far-stream scenario, on average. Mean lag times for the spatial scenarios were all within 1.0% of those of their partner scenarios. Finally, I found that the cumulative effectiveness of RGs for reducing peak flows and increasing lag times decreased significantly with increasing rainfall depth, intensity, and duration. Runoff volume reduction was negatively correlated with rainfall depths above 10 mm and with rainfall intensities above 10 mm/hr, but not with storm duration. Catchment-scale RG performance was not correlated with two proxies for catchment AMC (i.e., 7-day antecedent rainfall and pre-event discharge). This research demonstrates that residential RGs can significantly improve the runoff response of suburban catchments, and that their effectiveness varies depending on their spatial distribution and on rainfall characteristics.
Digital equity in a crowded tool space: Navigating opportunities and challenges for equitable implementation of conservation technologies
(Wiley, 2024-12-24) Tabor, Karyn M.; Stavros, Natasha; Biehler, Dawn; Castillo-Villamor, Liliana C.; Mahmoudi, Dillon; Moreno Amado, Luis Mario; Holland, Margaret
We call on conservation funders, technology developers, and practitioners to explore how digital technologies can transform conservation practice. Actors supporting, developing, and funding digital technologies for conservation must address digital inequity and reduce the societal risks of digital technologies that may undermine conservation goals. We highlight the challenges in leveraging digital conservation technologies and recommend approaches to increase access to digital technologies for uptake by diverse users while supporting equitable participation from diverse user communities to shape digital technologies and their applications. Improving access to and use of tools may be achieved through strategic funding for digital design that recognizes and supports local solutions and diverse practices and perspectives. With increasing digital access, funders must also emphasize adherence to safeguards and protocols to reduce risks associated with digital technologies. By adopting more ethical methodologies related to digital technologies, we not only enhance global sustainability but also foster collaborative relationships with communities, recognizing the intrinsic value of their expertise in conservation initiatives and jointly safeguarding the environment to ensure the well-being of all. Encouraging more equitable approaches to conservation technologies underpins global priorities for sustainable development by centering and supporting the communities most directly involved in conservation action.
The Anthropocene Confirms Human Transformation of the Earth System
(2024-12-11) Kaplan, Jed O.; Ellis, Erle C.
Human influences in the Earth System are now as important as variations in Earth抯 orbit around the sun and plate tectonics in controlling climate and many other Earth System processes, at least on societally relevant timescales. Humans move sediment, affect plant and animal populations, and emit greenhouse gases with magnitudes and rates that are well above preanthropogenic backgrounds, even compared to periods of abrupt change visible in geologic time. Traces of human activity are detectable in all major planetary spheres, from the lithosphere to the atmosphere, in the deep oceans, and in every terrestrial ecosystem. While geologists chose not to define the anthropocene as a geologic epoch, it remains a critical concept in the Earth sciences for recognizing the increasingly powerful influence of human societies in shaping the Earth System. Viewing the anthropocene as a complex and heterogeneous event that began gradually with the emergence of modern humans and continues to accelerate to the present acknowledges the way human societies have altered this planet, first locally and eventually globally, both inadvertently and intentionally. This deeper history of human-environment interactions is apparent from current evidence.
Linking Biodiversity and Human Wellbeing in Systematic Conservation Assessments of Working Landscapes
(MDPI, 2023-06-21) Huber, Patrick R.; Baker, Matthew; Hollander, Allan D.; Lange, Matthew; Miller, Daphne; Quinn, James F.; Riggle, Courtney; Tomich, Thomas P.
Systematic land use planning to address environmental impacts does not typically include human health and wellbeing as explicit inputs. We tested the effects of including issues related to human health, ecosystem services, and community wellbeing on the outputs of a standard land use planning process which is primarily focused on environmental variables. We consulted regional stakeholders to identify the health issues that have environmental links in the Sacramento, California region and to identify potential indicators and datasets that can be used to assess and track these issues. Marxan planning software was used to identify efficient land use patterns to maximize both ecological conservation and human health outcomes. Outputs from five planning scenarios were compared and contrasted, resulting in a spatially explicit series of tradeoffs across the scenarios. Total area required to meet imputed goals ranged from 10.4% to 13.4% of the total region, showing somewhat less efficiency in meeting biodiversity goals when health outcomes are included. Additionally, we found 4.8% of residential areas had high greening needs, but this varied significantly across the six counties. The work provides an example of how integrative assessment can help inform management decisions or stakeholder negotiations potentially leading to better management of the production landscapes in food systems.
Accuracy differences in aboveground woody biomass estimation with terrestrial laser scanning for trees in urban and rural forests and different leaf conditions
(Springer, 2023-06-01) Arseniou, Georgios; MacFarlane, David W.; Calders, Kim; Baker, Matthew
Both rural and urban forests play an important role in terrestrial carbon cycling. Forest carbon stocks are typically estimated from models predicting the aboveground biomass (AGB) of trees. However, such models are often limited by insufficient data on tree mass, which generally requires felling and weighing parts of trees. In this study, thirty-one trees of both deciduous and evergreen species were destructively sampled in rural and urban forest conditions. Prior to felling, terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) data were used to estimate tree biomass based on volume estimates from quantitative structure models, combined with tree basic density estimates from disks sampled from stems and branches after scanning and felling trees, but also in combination with published basic density values. Reference woody AGB, main stem, and branch biomass were computed from destructive sampling. Trees were scanned in leaf-off conditions, except evergreen and some deciduous trees, to assess effects of a leaf-separation algorithm on TLS-based woody biomass estimates. We found strong agreement between TLS-based and reference woody AGB, main stem, and branch biomass values, using both measured and published basic densities to convert TLS-based volume to biomass, but use of published densities reduced accuracy. Correlations between TLS-based and reference branch biomass were stronger for urban trees, while correlations with stem mass were stronger for rural trees. TLS-based biomass estimates from leaf-off and leaf-removed point clouds strongly agreed with reference biomass data, showing the utility of the leaf-removal algorithm for enhancing AGB estimation.
A data pedigree system to support geospatial analyses of human-environment interactions in data poor contexts
(Taylor & Francis, 2024-12-18) Magliocca, Nicholas R.; Sink, Carter D.; Devine, Jennifer A.; Fagan, Matthew E.; Aguilar-González, Bernardo; McSweeney, Kendra; Mukherjee, Rohit; Nielsen, Erik A.; Sesnie, Steven E.; Tellman, Beth; Arellano-Thompson, Elise
Geospatial analyses of human-environment interactions are challenged by the multi-scale, multi-dimensional nature of human-environment systems. Research in such contexts must often rely on integrating multiple, independently produced data sources, which presents heterogenous data qualities and interoperability challenges. Understanding data quality and transparency becomes increasingly important in these contexts, and multi?granularity and context specific spatial data quality indicators are needed. We develop a data pedigree system that accounts for multiple data quality aspects, geospatial ambiguities that may hinder interoperability, and the fitness-for-use of each data source for indicating causal linkages between human activities and environmental change. We demonstrate its application to a particularly challenging and data sparse case study of identifying the location and timing of transnational cocaine trafficking, or ‘narco-trafficking’, in Central America with five spatial and temporal data quality indicators: geographic clarity, geographic interpretation, provenance, temporal specificity, and narco-trafficking certainty. The proposed data pedigree system provides a systematic and coherent analytical framework for interoperability, comparison, and corroboration of fragmented and incomplete data, which are needed to support advanced geospatial analyses, such as causal inference techniques. The study demonstrates the transferability and operationalization of the data pedigree system for examining complex human-environment interactions, especially those influenced by illicit economies.
Canopy composition drives variability in urban growing season length more than the heat island effect
(Elsevier, 2023-08-01) Alonzo, Michael; Baker, Matthew; Caplan, Joshua S.; Williams, Avery; Elmore, Andrew J.
The elevated heat of urban areas compared to their surroundings makes humid temperate cities a useful preview of future climate effects on natural forest phenology. The utility of this proxy rests on the expectation that trees in urban areas alter their phenology in response to warmer site conditions in spring and fall. However, it is possible that apparent lengthening of the growing season is instead governed by human-driven tree species selection and plant functional type (PFT; trees, shrubs, turfgrass) heterogeneity typical of managed landscapes. Without the use of highly spatially and temporally resolved remote sensing data, the roles of tree taxonomy and local site characteristics (e.g., impervious cover) in controlling phenology remain confounded. To understand the drivers of earlier start of season (SOS) and later end of season (EOS) among urban trees, we estimated individual tree phenology using >130 high-resolution satellite images per year (2018–2020) for ~10,000 species-labeled trees in Washington, DC. We found that species identity alone accounted for 4× more variability in the timing of SOS and EOS compared with a tree's planting location characteristics. Additionally, the urban mix of PFTs may be more responsible for apparent advances in SOS (by between 1.8 ± 1.3 and 3.5 ± 1.3 days) than heat per se. The results of this study caution against associating longer growing seasons in cities—observed in moderate to coarse resolution remote sensing imagery—to within-species phenological plasticity and demonstrate the power of high-resolution satellite data for tracking tree phenology in biodiverse environments.

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