Land Change Science

This volume is a synthesis of the NASA funded work under the Land-Cover and Land-Use Change Program. Hundreds of scientists have worked for the past eight years to understand one of the most important forces that is changing our planet-human impacts on land cover, that is land use. Its contributions span the natural and the social sciences, and apply state-of-the-art techniques for understanding the earth: satellite remote sensing, geographic information systems, modeling, and advanced computing. It brings together detailed case studies, regional analyses, and globally scaled mapping efforts.

This is the most organized effort made to understand the dominant force that has been responsible for changing the Earth’s biosphere.

Audience: This publication will be of interest to students, scientists, and policy makers.

• global change
• human ecology
• land degradation
• landscape ecology
• remote sensing of the environment
• biodiversity
• biosphere
• climate
• desertification
• Monitoring
• remote sensing
• satellite
• remote sensing/photogrammetry
• landscape/regional and urban planning

• NASA Headquarters, Washington, USA

  Garik Gutman

• Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment, The H. John Heinz III, Washington, USA

  Anthony C. Janetos

• University of Maryland, College Park, USA

  Christopher O. Justice

• Indiana University, Bloomington, USA

  Emilio F. Moran

• Brown University, Providence, USA

  John F. Mustard

• University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA

  Ronald R. Rindfuss

• Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA

  David Skole, Mark A. Cochrane

• Clark University, Worcester, USA

  Billy Lee Turner

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