Natural Resource Measurements and Mapping: An Introduction to Field Skills and Data Analysis introduces students to the important technical and analytical skills required to succeed in natural resources professions.
Natural Resource Measurements and Mapping: An Introduction to Field Skills and Data Analysis introduces students to the important technical and analytical skills required to succeed in natural resources professions. Designed to function as a foundational textbook and workbook, the text focuses on skill development, application, and problem-solving. Students learn about navigation and map-reading, compass use, topographic surveying, and vegetation sampling and analysis. They develop the preliminary spatial skills required for both Global Positioning Systems and Geographic Information Systems. They also become familiar with land cover classification. The second edition of the text features new end-of-chapter summaries, additional topographical key terms and definitions, and a glossary. It also expands topical coverage to include GIS technology and the Public Land Survey System. Updates have been made throughout to ensure the content is current. Natural Resource Measurements and Mapping features a distinct focus on field work and data analysis to teach students practical skills and prepare them for a career in natural resources. It is well-suited to courses in earth and environmental science, field methods, geography, and natural resources management. Alexandra Locher earned her Ph.D. in fisheries and wildlife at Michigan State University, East Lansing. Dr. Locher is an associate professor of biology and natural resource management at Grand Valley State University. Her professional writing has appeared in Journal of Wildlife Management, Journal of Applied Forestry, Wilson Journal of Ornithology, and PLOS One. She has received numerous grants for her research, including those from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, and Michigan Department of Natural Resources. She is particularly interested in the ways in which forest management practices impact wildlife species and communities.
Natural Resource Measurements and Mapping: An Introduction to Field Skills and Data Analysis introduces students to the important technical and analytical skills required to succeed in natural resources professions. Designed to function as a foundational textbook and workbook, the text focuses on skill development, application, and problem-solving. Students learn about navigation and map-reading, compass use, topographic surveying, and vegetation sampling and analysis. They develop the preliminary spatial skills required for both Global Positioning Systems and Geographic Information Systems. They also become familiar with land cover classification. The second edition of the text features new end-of-chapter summaries, additional topographical key terms and definitions, and a glossary. It also expands topical coverage to include GIS technology and the Public Land Survey System. Updates have been made throughout to ensure the content is current. Natural Resource Measurements and Mapping features a distinct focus on field work and data analysis to teach students practical skills and prepare them for a career in natural resources. It is well-suited to courses in earth and environmental science, field methods, geography, and natural resources management.
Sustainable management of natural resources is an urgent need, given the changing climatic conditions of Earth systems. The ability to monitor natural resources precisely and accurately is increasingly important. New and advanced remote sensing tools and techniques are continually being developed to monitor and manage natural resources in an effective way. Remote sensing technology uses electromagnetic sensors to record, measure and monitor even small variations in natural resources. The addition of new remote sensing datasets, processing techniques and software makes remote sensing an exact and cost-effective tool and technology for natural resource monitoring and management. Advances in Remote Sensing for Natural Resources Monitoring provides a detailed overview of the potential applications of advanced satellite data in natural resource monitoring. The book determines how environmental and - ecological knowledge and satellite-based information can be effectively combined to address a wide array of current natural resource management needs. Each chapter covers different aspects of remote sensing approach to monitor the natural resources effectively, to provide a platform for decision and policy. This important work: Provides comprehensive coverage of advances and applications of remote sensing in natural resources monitoring Includes new and emerging approaches for resource monitoring with case studies Covers different aspects of forest, water, soil- land resources, and agriculture Provides exemplary illustration of themes such as glaciers, surface runoff, ground water potential and soil moisture content with temporal analysis Covers blue carbon, seawater intrusion, playa wetlands, and wetland inundation with case studies Showcases disaster studies such as floods, tsunami, showing where remote sensing technologies have been used This edited book is the first volume of the book series Advances in Remote Sensing for Earth Observation.
"Geographic Information Systems are essential technologies for natural resource management. - Geographic Information Systems: Applications in Natural Resource Management is a comprehensive guide and introduces the GIS tools, techniques, and principles necessary for GIS professionals throughout the world. - "Part one provides an overview of the field, from its historical development and basic principles to some common pitfalls and how to avoid them. - Part two explains in detail the essential GIS operations (querying, buffering, clipping, overlay analysis, etc.). Finally, part three discusses current trends and future challenges. - Every chapter includes extensive application questions, and throughout the book 'In Depth' feature boxes encourage readers to delve deeper into key issues and advanced techniques. - A companion website provides sets of GIS data that readers can use to practice the techniques they have learned."--Jacket.
Resources Measurements and Mapping: A Goal-Based Approach gives students a foundation in the important technical and analytical skills required to succeed in natural resources professions. Designed to function as a foundational textbook and workbook, it focuses on skill development, application, and problem-solving. Students learn about navigation and map-reading, compass use, topographic surveying, and vegetation sampling and analysis. They develop the preliminary spatial skills required for both Global Positioning Systems and Geographic Information Systems. They also become familiar with land cover classification. While many standard texts in the discipline are highly technical, Resource Measurement and Mapping focuses on field work and data analysis and emphasizes the practical skill sets that employers look for. It is well-suited to courses in earth and environmental science, field methods, geography, and natural resources management. The book can also serve as a reference guide for professionals in the field.
Highlighting new technologies, Remote Sensing of Natural Resources explores advanced remote sensing systems and algorithms for image processing, enhancement, feature extraction, data fusion, image classification, image-based modeling, image-based sampling design, map accuracy assessment and quality control. It also discusses their applications for evaluation of natural resources, including sampling design, land use and land cover classification, natural landscape and ecosystem assessment, forestry, agriculture, biomass and carbon-cycle modeling, wetland classification and dynamics monitoring, and soils and minerals mapping. The book combines review articles with case studies that demonstrate recent advances and developments of methods, techniques, and applications of remote sensing, with each chapter on a specific area of natural resources. Through a comprehensive examination of the wide range of applications of remote sensing technologies to natural resources, the book provides insight into advanced remote sensing systems, technologies, and algorithms for researchers, scientists, engineers, and decision makers.
The introduction of transfrontier conservation areas (TFCAs) in southern Africa was based on an enchanting promise: simultaneously contributing to global biodiversity conservation initiatives, regional peace and integration, and the sustainable socio-economic development of rural communities. Cross-border collaboration and eco-tourism became seen as the vehicles of this promise, which would enhance regional peace and stability along the way. However, as these highly political projects take shape, conservation and development policymaking progressively shifts from the national to regional and global arenas, and the peoples most affected by TFCA formation tend to disappear from view. This book focuses on the forgotten people displaced by, or living on the edge of, protected wildlife areas. It moves beyond the grand 'enchanting promise' of conservation and development across frontiers, and unfounded notions of TFCAs as integrated social-ecological systems. Peoples' dependency on natural resources – the specific combination of crop cultivation, livestock keeping and natural resource harvesting activities – varies enormously along the conservation frontier, as does their reliance on resources on the other side of the conservation boundary. Hence, the studies in this book move from the dream of eco-tourism-fuelled development supporting nature conservation and people towards the local realities facing marginalized people, living adjacent to protected areas in environments often poorly suited to agriculture.
'Natural Resources: Neither Course nor Destiny' brings together a variety of analytical perspectives, ranging from econometric analyses of economic growth to historical studies of successful development experiences in countries with abundant natural resources. The evidence suggests that natural resources are neither a curse nor destiny. Natural resources can actually spur economic development when combined with the accumulation of knowledge for economic innovation. Furthermore, natural resource abundance need not be the only determinant of the structure of trade in developing countries. In fact, the accumulation of knowledge, infrastructure, and the quality of governance all seem to determine not only what countries produce and export, but also how firms and workers produce any good.