Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) remote sensing offers new and improved capabilities for vertical and structural characterization of objects, such as plant height and different growth stages/strata, etc. Climate change will change tree and plant growth conditions and thus will change forest structure and distribution, which can potentially be studied using LiDAR remote sensing.
Human-driven land-use and land-cover change (LULCC) is one of the most important causes for depletion of biodiversity. Few studies have been undertaken to spatially identify the natural areas prone to LULCC and hence biodiversity loss. This article describes a geospatial modelling technique using a combination of drivers of LULCC, spatial distribution
of LULCC and topographic impedances for change in hotspot. A study has been carried out to establish the model. The model has shown that the natural areas having high population density in the vicinity are highly prone to LULCC.
We study the regional variation of temperature trends (warming or cooling) over Western India and the contribution of land-use and land-cover (LULC) changes towards this warming or cooling based on temperature datasets of 37 years (1973–2009). The contribution of LULC to the warming or cooling is estimated based on deviation in temperature in the observation and reanalysis datasets. The observed temperature dataset indicates that Western India is getting warmer by 0.13°C per decade. This warming is the combined effect of increase in concentration of greenhouse gases and LULC changes.
Pterocarpus santalinus L.f. (Red Sanders) is an endemic and endangered species largely confined to the southern portion of the Eastern Ghats, Andhra Pradesh, India. To understand its ecological and geographic distribution, we used ecological niche modelling (ENM) based on field sample-based distributional information, in relation to climatic and topographic datasets. Before modelling, hierarchical partitioning was used to optimize the choice of variables for better
The IPCC in its Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) described the Himalayan Region as data-deficient in terms of climate monitoring. This is a serious impediment to global research initiatives and thus necessitates long-term ecological monitoring (LTEM) across the Himalaya. Being governed by low temperature conditions, the high-altitude regions in Himalaya are more responsive to changing environmental conditions and hence serve as better indicators.
Characterization, quantification and monitoring of biodiversity have been among the major challenges in biodiversity conservation. Until recently, spatial ecological database in India was almost non-existent. There is need of a robust and quality database of the biological diversity at species, community, ecosystem and landscape levels for identification of vulnerable ecosystems and risk species. In order to have a national level database on the spatial distribution of
Sal (Shorea robusta Gaertn. f.) is a dominant tree species, whose natural range lies between 20–32°N lat. and 75–95°E long., is spread across 10 million ha in India. Species distribution models predict the species geographic ranges from occurrence records and sitespecific environmental data. Here, we have (i) generated the 1960s scenario for sal species on the basis of the existing published literature; (ii) confirmed the species occurrence data using satellite imagery for the
Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) is considered as an important mechanism under the UNFCCC aimed at mitigating climate change. The Cancun Agreement on REDD mechanism has paved the way for designing and implementation of REDD+ activities, to assist countries experiencing large-scale deforestation and forest degradation. Contrary to the general perception, the present analysis shows that India is currently experiencing deforestation and forest degradation. According to the latest assessment of the Forest Survey of India, the
Bangalore city with an extent of 800 sq. km, located at more than 920 m amsl, forming part of the catchments of Arkavati river to the west and Ponnaiyar river (South Pinakini) to the east. Bangalore city forming a part of the semi-arid tract is in the agro-climatic environs of Eastern Dry Zone of Karnataka. The area is drained by first to fourth-order streams, among which the first and second-order streams predominate.
In the developing world climate change has far more ramifications than can be addressed by controlling just carbon
emissions. The developed world has stable populations and landscapes, and is thus affected mainly by the air which
spreads democratically without boundaries. On the other hand, the developing world with increasing populations and
consumption is depleting its living natural resource base of water, forest, soils and agriculture, and is poised for a far
