CCMS: Challenges of Modernity for Environmental Sciences - Use of Landscape Sciences for Environmental Assessment

Project partner

Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States

Short description

The purpose and scope of this landscape sciences pilot study is to establish a working group representative of NATO Member and Partner nations to exchange information about landscape science approaches useful for environmental assessment and to transfer landscape assessment technologies among the study group participants for use in environmental protection and preservation programs. Both land use and land cover characterization and the use of landscape indicators will be demonstrated for environmental assessment. Multiple geographic areas in Europe and the continental United States have been selected for this demonstration study. The pilot study will explore the possibility of quantifying and assessing environmental condition, processes of land degradation, and subsequent impacts on natural and human resources (including security) by combining the advanced technologies of remote sensing, geographic information systems, spatial statistics, and process models with landscape ecology theory.

Benjamin Burkhard completed this project at the Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel.