Title: Tools for understanding landscapes: combining large-scale surveys to characterize change. Chapter 9.

Author: Moser, W. Keith; Bolliger, Janine; Bragg, Don C.; Hansen, Mark H.; Hatfield, Mark A.; Nigh, Timothy A.; Schulte, Lisa A.

Year: 2008

Publication: In: Lafortezza, Raffaele; Chen, Jiquan; Sanesi, Giovanni; Crow, Thomas R., eds. Patterns and processes in forest landscapes. Springer: 149-166.

Abstract: All landscapes change continuously. Since change is perceived and interpreted through measures of scale, any quantitative analysis of landscapes must identify and describe the spatiotemporal mosaics shaped by large-scale structures and processes. This process is controlled by core influences, or "drivers," that shape the change and affect the outcome depending on their magnitude and intensity. Our understanding of landscape change and its drivers depends upon many different sources of information of varying quality and breadth - some quantitative, some systematic, others anecdotal or qualitative. In this respect, large-scale surveys and inventories capable of documenting landscape composition, structure, and dynarnics, both past and present, can prove to be vital tools for addressing contemporary resource issues. This chapter examines the role of large-scale inventories in identifying landscape change and developing hypotheses about the underlying drivers. Although a number of such sources exist, we shall focus on two from the United States: the Public Land Surveys (1785-1900), and the US Forest Service's Forest Inventory and Analysis program (1930s-present).