Landscape Analysis and Disturbance Modeling

Anthropogenic influences on natural resources have been leading to changes on land use/land cover and landscape ecology. These shifts cause immense natural habitat fragmentation, loss of biodiversity and environmental degradation. Quantifying changes on landscape ecology is an important input for natural resource planning to ensure sustainable development. GIS and Remote Sensing provide handy tool with this regard. Nevertheless, in developing countries, not much has been done using GIS and Remote Sensing techniques. This book presents methodologies relevant to quantify the overall dynamics of land use/land cover, rate of deforestation, ecological indices of composition, configuration and shape using remotely sensed data and GIS at class level. Furthermore, it depict GIS techniques employed to model landscape disturbance and spatial analysis, which has significant impact hydrology flux. Hence, this book makes significant contribution for sustainable ecosystem management and conservation to improve livelihood of the local people and the environment.