Introduction
Within a contemporary context, continuous population growth has promoted an upsurge in land development. In relation to these trends, overall land cover has significantly been altered. It is estimated that 32% of global land has been affected by (human) land use change activities between 1960 and 2019 (Winkler, et al., 2021). Subsequently, forested regions tend to be at the forefront of such alterations, with the leading cause of [global] deforestation being attributed to rapid population growth (Gatarić, et al., 2022). Between 2000 and 2022, approximately 100 million hectares of forest cover were lost, with a relative decrease of 31.9 to 31.2% of the total global area constituting this land cover (UN, 2022). Woody species have likewise been facing a similar fate within urban and community environments nationwide; the decline has been projected to be around 175,000 acres per year (which translates to 36 million trees) (Nowak & Greenfield, 2018). Furthermore, a correlation between impervious surface gain, in relation to tree canopy loss was observed in urban and community spaces, ranging from +0.6-1.0% growth from 2009 to 2014 (Nowak & Greenfield, 2018). Globally, impervious surface cover has increased from approximately 1.27 to 1.29 million km2 between 2015 and 2018 (Sun, et al., 2022).
Affiliation
Villanova University
Course
GEV 3760: Geospatial Applications in Environmental Science
Tool Highlights
Reclassify, Extract By Mask, Buffer, Plot X/Y