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Resources
A Birds Eye View of the Region’s Changing Landscape - Thomas R. Loveland
Published: 1/9/2005
2004 Southeast Watershed Roundtable Presentaion Click here for full agenda
The U.S. Geological Survey is studying the variability of the rates and causes of landscape change in the Southeast using satellite images, field surveys, and an ecoregions-based approach. The wide ranging land cover patterns across the Southeast United States are the result of different combinations of climatic, geologic, soils, hydrologic, vegetative, and human management (land use) factors. The unique resources of each ecoregion enable a diverse quilt of land use and land use change. Results based on studying 30 years of satellite images covering the Southeast show that while the aggregate change in the ecoregions bisecting the Southeast is significant (17.4 percent of the land has changed since 1973), there are significant differences in the nature and extent of change in each of the Southeast ecoregions. The plains ecoregions experienced the greatest change; in the Southeastern Plains, 20.8 percent area changed since 1973 with changes in forest cover associated with plantation silviculture being dominant. In contrast, mountain regions of the Southeast changed far less. For example, the Blue Ridge ecoregion’s land cover changed only 2.0 percent since 1973 but much of this change is associated with urban growth. While forest conversion is the largest change overall in the Southeast, urban growth is pervasive across all ecoregions. The consequences of change in the Southeast range from expanded economic opportunity to habitat degradation. Managing the effects of a changing landscape in the future will require considerable observation, measurement, and planning that is based on a local to regional context.
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