Treesearch

The debates on development manifest an increasing concern for sustainability, but as yet little awareness of the hierarchy in the ideas through which humans contribute to the problem. This gap is widened by a widespread but nevertheless unnecessary acceptance of unreasonable elements such as paradoxes, or the general fragmentation in knowledge, or allegedly general limits to it. First the character of such impediments is assessed, partly in theoretical considerations and partly through examples. This analysis reveals the root of a widespread self-limitation in thinking. Understanding its...

The simplest definition of a web service is an application that provides a web API. The web API exposes the functionality of the solution to other applications. The web API relies on other Internet-based technologies to manage communications. The resulting web services are pervasive, vendor-independent, language-neutral, and very low-cost. The main purpose of a web API is to enable application integration, and bring providers (developers) and requestors (users) together. More specifically, web services allow integration of heterogeneous applications. With solutions in place agents and...

A study of forest stand canopy variable assessment using digital, airborne, multispectral imagery is presented. Variable estimation involves stem density, canopy closure, and mean crown diameter, and it is based on quantification of spatial autocorrelation among pixel digital numbers (DN) using variogram analysis and an alternative, non-parametric approach known as slope-break analysis. Variable estimation proceeds from identification of tree tops. Variable accuracy assessment is obtained via value comparison with a spatially precise set of 34 Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) design...

GLIMS is a NASA funded project that utilizes Open-Source Software to achieve its goal of creating a globally complete inventory of glaciers. The participation of many international institutions and the development of on-line mapping applications to provide access to glacial data have both been enhanced by Open-Source GIS capabilities and play a crucial role in the success of the project.

Land-use change, mainly forest burning, harvest, or clearing for agriculture, may compose 15 to 40 percent of annual human-caused emissions of carbon (C) to the atmosphere. Spatially extensive data on forest C pools can validate and parameterize atmospheric and ecosystem models of those fluxes and quantify fluxes from forest change. Excellent evidence exists that light detection and ranging (lidar) waveforms can be scaled to estimate forest biomass and aboveground C pools. The Geoscience Laser Altimeter Systmem (GLAS) instrument provides satellite-based continuous return lidar data and may...

The watersheds of northern Mexico that encompasses the Rio San Pedro, Sinaloa, Nazas, Aguanaval, San Juan, and San Fernando-Soto La Marina are located within the main mountain ranges of northern Mexico and within the zone of large deserts of the boreal hemisphere. The hydro-climate variations, the management of forest soils and land use changes are shaping the supply and management of water resources. This research project aims to understand whether changes in discharge variables are present in time series data of 172 gauging stations of five watershed of northern Mexico. The Mann-Kendall...

The growth of residential communities within forest areas throughout the country, and particularly in the West, has increased the danger to life and property from uncontrolled wildfire. The conflict of permanent residential settlements built next to a fire-adapted ecosystem has been further exacerbated by 100 years of fire suppression and an extended drought in the West. Under the police powers granted by the Constitution, state and local governments have the power to pass laws to protect the health, safety, and welfare of their citizens. As this relates to land use, the states have...

This paper addresses the need and opportunity for creating a learning center for advancing the monitoring and assessment of ecosystems resources and their sustainability in the Mexican state of Jalisco. It is an initiative that responds to the growing needs of a more sophisticated world in which knowledge is the tool for creating social and environmental progress and information is the key that unleashes this power. One of the goals of governments in this “Knowledge Age Era” is to create an environment in which ecosystem resources can be managed and utilized in a fashion that simultaneously...

Szendrő Fire Department is located in the northeastern part of Hungary. The main task is to fight against wildfire and mitigate the impact of fire at the Aggtelek National Park -- which belongs to the UNESCO World Heritage list. Because of greater effectiveness, in 2004 the Fire Department started a project named Integrated Vegetation Fire Management (IVFM). The IVFM consist of two main parts: Peripheries and Modules. The land use planning, finance, public relations, education, media connections, protective equipment belongs to Peripheries. The Modules are: Tower based environment monitorin...

Analysis of seedling growth characteristics between two greenhouse cover types, old fiberglass and new polycarbonate, shows significant differences in height and sturdiness coefficients in ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) seedlings. Three rates of nitrogen (N) application (20, 40, and 60 mg) indicate that seedling growth will increase under both cover types, but may cause a reduction in seedling quality attributes including shoot-to-root ratio and seedling sturdiness. Under the new polycarbonate cover type, the mid and high rates of N fertilizer application showed no significant gains in...