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LUHNA 1995 Workshop
"Inventing LUHNA"
14-15 August 1995
Patuxent Wildlife Research Center
Laurel, MD
Participants
Agenda
Summary
Initial LUHNA Workshop Participants
Linda Brooks, Bureau of Land Management, Springfield VA
Mike Crane, U.S. Geological Survey, Denver CO
Dominic Della Salla, World Wildlife Fund, Washington DC
John Dennis, National Park Service, Washington DC
Sam Droege, National Biological Service, Patuxent MD
David Foster, Harvard Forest, Petersham MA
Dana Hinzman, University of Maryland, Baltimore MD
Tony Janetos, NASA, Washington DC
Tom Lovejoy, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC
Gary Machlis, National Park Service/University of Idaho, Moscow ID
Paul Martin, University of Arizona, Tucson AZ
Jim Nichols, National Biological Service, Patuxent MD
Brand Neimann, National Biological Service, Washington DC
Barry Noon, USDA Forest Service, Arcata CA
Mike Palmer, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater OK
Steward Pickett, Institute of Environmental Studies, Millbrook NY
Ron Pulliam, National Biological Service, Washington DC
Mike Scott, National Biological Service/University of Idaho, Moscow, ID
Tom Sisk, National Biological Service/Stanford University, Washington DC
Tom Spies, USDA Forest Service, Corvallis OR
Monica Turner, University of Wisconsin, Madison WI
Donald Wortser, University of Kansas, Lawrence KS
Bruce Wright, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston VA
AGENDA: LUHNA Workshop
Day 1: Monday, August 14 1995
8:30 - 9:00 Greeting and Introductions.
9:00 - 9:30 Overview of LUHNA Concept.
9:30 - 9:45 Meeting Objectives and Schedule.
9:45 - 12:00 Working Session: State of the Art;
Data Availability; Current Research
Four 30 min. blocks. Topic introduction and overview,
followed by open discussion.
Topics:
1. Landscapes prior to European settlement.
2. Patterns of human land use: historical and
anthropological perspectives.
3. Early land surveys, aerial photography, and other
sources of ecological history: 1700-1900
4. Twentieth century landscapes: early and current
land characterization capabilities.
12:00 - 1:00 Lunch.
1:00 - 3:00 Working Session:
How Can We Build a Realistic LUHNA?
Four 30 min. blocks. Topic introduction and overview,
followed by open discussion.
Topics:
1. Organizing around a common theme: quantitative
approaches to landscape ecology.
2. Integrating data: management and analytical needs,
distributed data sets, spatial statistical
approaches.
3. Technical capabilities: data exploration and
presentation. What might a "completed"
turn-of-the-century LUHNA look, feel, and sound
like?
4. Building and sustaining a long-term research effort:
project definition, institutional support,
collaborative projects that are investigator-driven.
3:00 - 3:30 Half hour break.
3:30 - 4:30 Discussion: setting objectives: short-term and
long-term. Identifying the future users and the
broader audience for LUHNA. A realistic look at
funding possibilities.
4:30 - 5:30 Closing discussion: a concept paper for LUHNA.
6:30 - 9:00 Group Dinner.
Day 2: Tuesday, August 15 1995
8:30 - 12:00 Concept paper for LUHNA: integrating across
temporal and spatial scales.
Distribute and discuss draft outline.
Defining audience and purpose.
Revise/rewrite draft outline.
Writing assignments.
Time line.
12:00 - 1:00 Lunch.
1:00 - 4:00 Selecting criteria for pilot projects.
Geographic focus.
Temporal focus.
Integration across time, space, disciplines.
Incorporating products from pilot projects
into LUHNA concept paper.
4:00 Adjourn.
SUMMARY: Initial LUHNA Workshop
August 13-14 1995
I. Overview
A group of 25 scholars, representing six government agencies, seven universities, and
three independent scientific organizations convened for two days to discuss the value and
feasibility of compiling a history of land cover change and human land use throughout
North America. The participants brought experience and expertise in geography,
ecology, environmental history, sociology, statistics, and cartography.
The first day was
spent examining existing sources of information and the insights emerging from recent
research. The second day's work focused on planning the preliminary phase of the
project.
Initial efforts will be designed to illustrate the value and feasibility of the
project through a number of pilot projects and the publication of a "concept paper."
This document will propose an expanded, comprehensive LUHNA effort, to be
completed by the turn of the century. The following notes summarize much of the
conversation and recommendations that emerged from the workshop.
II. Introduction
In late 1994, the National Biological Service (NBS) began discussion of a program to
develop an historical atlas of North American landscapes. Initial discussions were
enthusiastically received by representatives of other Federal and state agencies and by
representatives of several professional societies.
This workshop was the initial effort to
reach out to a group of leading researchers working in the related fields. Based on the
results of the workshop and interest expressed by others, NBS is moving forward with a
demonstration project that will illustrate the concept and propose an expanded,
collaborative effort that will produce a comprehensive land use history.
The project, titled Land Use History of North America (LUHNA), will focus on
historical vegetation and land cover patterns, as well as the anthropogenic factors driving
those changes. Spatially referenced data, presented in map form, will integrate historical
information drawn from diverse sources, including paleoecological records, historical
narratives, early land surveys, aerial photography, and satellite imagery.
NBS Director Ron Pulliam initiated discussion by stating that LUHNA must address
both land cover and land use. Land cover focuses on patterns of vegetation, surface
water, exposed rock and ice, urbanization, and other landscape features. Land use
focuses on humans as one of the important driving forces in the determination of land
cover patterns. Understanding the linkage between human actions and land cover
change is important to societies as they adjust to changing environments. Socio-cultural
traditions can affect patterns of land cover, making land use history a much more
complex subject than the determination of land cover change. However, based on
biophysical constraints, there are only limited number of ways people can use the land
and examination of the past land uses and their impacts on biological systems should
provide valuable insight into the role of humans in dynamic biological systems.
A crucial challenge is to demonstrate the relevance of LUHNA in land management
decisions. One way to illustrate this potential is through a series of pilot projects. These
pilot projects should convey the extent, nature, and rate of temporal changes on a local
and regional scale, and they should examine both "background" levels of change and the
impacts of human activities.
To demonstrate land changes over time, LUHNA must create a data library from a
variety of sources. LUHNA should establish standards that will facilitate the integration
of disparate data sets and assure maximum utility from all data collected or compiled.
Specific topics include data format, vegetation classification scheme, appropriate spatial
and temporal scales, and the resolution, precision, and accuracy standards for spatial
data.
Scale and resolution will differ, even at initial stages, depending on data source and
quality of the data. LUHNA must develop a hierarchical data structure that will permit
the nesting of information at differing scales and resolutions, e.g. a detailed look at a
specific region within the southern Appalachians may be nested within a very coarse map
of forest cover for the southeastern USA.
A fundamental objective of the LUHNA project should be to provide an improved
ability to extrapolate from the historical changes in land cover and generate predictions
about the future.
III. The Historical Record: Sources of Data, Availability, Biases
The temporal intervals addressed by LUHNA should include a series of time slices
reaching back, at a minimum, to the period preceding European settlement of North
America. A diversity of data sources and analytical approaches are currently available,
but most data have been under-utilized, and techniques are rapidly evolving. Workshop
participants presented brief overviews and discussion of historical records for several
time periods and avenues of investigation.
A. Landscapes prior to the European settlement.
The paleoecological record offers an increasingly rich and varied perspective on early
land cover and landscape change. Paul Martin discussed patterns of faunal extinctions
and evidence of vegetation dynamics in arid North America. He highlighted the links
between floral and faunal assemblages and spoke about deriving information on Native
American land use and land cover changes due to climatic shifts. There was discussion
of the enormity of the task of reconstructing comprehensive, large-scale picture from the
paleoecological record.
David Foster agreed that paleoecological studies provide essential information needed
for LUHNA, and offered examples from several regions, focusing on New England
forests. He noted that the paleoecological record has biases associated with it. For
example, pollen cores, the fossil record, fire history, and archeological sites all preserve
information in a biased form -- some pollen or fossils preserve better than others, some
sites are more conducive to preservation, etc. The strength of these data lies in the fact
that the magnitude of the biases are relatively constant over substantial periods, allowing
fairly robust trends detection. Changing patterns in Northeastern forest cover were
discussed.
B. Historical, anthropological and sociological perspectives
Discussion, led by Donald Worster and Gary Machlis clarified the distinctions between
"land cover" and "land use," terms that often have been used interchangeably by
ecologists. Several people felt that agreement on the scope of LUHNA should be
reached before project planning moved forward. Land use implies an understanding or
attention to the cultural factors influencing human actions and, thus, land cover change.
A true land use history should examine the social and cultural history that generated
change in landscapes. Discussions touched on the differences in patterns of European
settlement under the English and Spanish rule, on the effects of interregional migration
driven by westward expansion, and on the influence of water on land use patterns in the
West. The complexities of these cultural "driving forces" were discussed, and the ability
of LUHNA to address this level of land use was debated. Most favored explicit
treatment of land use, but acknowledged that it would be difficult to express this
perspective in the map-based, quantitative framework developed to document land cover
change. A mixed, multi-disciplinary approach should integrate narrative history and
historical maps articulating land use history with the highly visual, quantitative
documentation of land cover change. To the extent possible, these perspectives should
be linked through the use of standardized systems for classification of vegetation and
other land cover types.
C. Early Land Surveys, Aerial Photography and other Data Sources
Linda Brooks described records, housed by the Bureau of Land Management, from early
land surveys of the United States. The records from the General Land Office (GLO)
have been used in a number of projects to reconstruct land cover at the time of
European settlement. The willingness of BLM to work with LUHNA investigators was
expressed, and it was agreed that some system of cataloging the dates and the extent of
information available for different parts of the country would be helpful.
Aerial photographs are another valuable source of information on land use and land
cover. Beginning in the 1920's, comprehensive coverage is available for much of the
country. Problems with archival and retrieval of material present significant barriers to
the use of this information. The Department of Agriculture's Natural Resource
Conservation Service houses extensive photo collections. The usefulness of the land
cover record preserved in aerial photographs was demonstrated by Mike Crane. He
presented work examining complex patterns of urbanization and changing land use along
Colorado's Front Range. Mosaics of photos from different time periods provided a high
resolution, historical perspective on a rapidly changing region.
Statistical approaches for sampling from very large data archives were suggested. It
should be possible to design sampling protocols that would select a subset of the
available images within a geographic area and employ spatial statistical approaches to
generate a probabilistic map of land cover at a given time. This approach would sacrifice
accuracy at particular locations for efficiency in generating geographically extensive
coverages. Accuracy could be assessed by sampling from the unused images and
comparing with the statistically derived maps.
Mike Palmer described efforts to compile and analyze distributional information from
floras. This historical botanical information can be used to assess the completeness of
botanical inventories, and predict plant diversity in unsampled areas. Other information
available from biological inventories and surveys could be compiled to document the
expansion and contraction of the ranges of plants and animals. In many cases, these
patterns can be linked to patterns in human land use. The spread of non-indigenous
species is an issue of broad interest that could be effectively addressed through LUHNA.
D. Contemporary Landscapes
Efforts to derive information on contemporary land cover and land use reach far beyond
the needs of LUHNA. Landsat coverage is comprehensive and widely available. Among
the many projects looking at contemporary land cover, the NBS's Gap Analysis Program
offers an excellent opportunity for establishing a baseline for LUHNA spatial data.
Scale and resolution of the initial LUHNA products might be comparable to the early
GAP products (i.e. scale 1:100,000, resolution ~30m.) Mike Scott discussed
collaboration between GAP and the USGS mapping division. Opportunities for data
sharing abound.
Tony Janetos discussed approaches for using Landsat and other remotely sensed data to
document land cover change, quantify fragmentation, and trace the diversity of patterns
in vegetation types. Many techniques developed to examine contemporary imagery could
be applied to historic landscapes, once digital maps were generated from historic data
sources.
IV. Quantitative Approaches for Building LUHNA
Bringing together information from many different sources and integrating it into a
cohesive and useful product will require a common framework for organization. Many
participants expressed the need for a quantitative database that will support a diversity of
analytical approaches. Monica Turner summarized current methods and approaches
employed in landscape ecology. Common uses of LUHNA will involve determination of
the rate of change over time and comparison between different sites. In addition, linking
land cover change to land use will require quantitative measures of each. The
development of a predictive capability, drawing on historic patterns and trends in land
cover, will require a consistent analytical framework. Much of the necessary analytical
capability exists or is under development, however, data acquisition is often the limiting
step. A critical first step in LUHNA is the adoption of data standards, classification
categories, and appropriate scales of analyses. This should precede large scale efforts to
compile new databases. Discussion did not resolve these issues; additional work is
needed. Pilot projects will serve to refine an initial set of data standards prior to an
expanded effort
There was general agreement that, in addition to the visual, map-based products of
LUHNA, underlying data should be provided in a standard, electronic format, providing
access to baseline information and the opportunity for additional analysis.
V. Building LUHNA: Preliminary Steps
LUHNA should reach a broad and diverse audience, ranging from policy makers to
scientists and resource managers, to educators and their students, and to the general
public. Reaching a broad audience will require a stimulating format for conveying
historical information in a graphical context. GIS imagery and CD-Rom capabilities
should be coupled to produce an interactive data base. Complementary paper and
electronic versions of a LUHNA atlas will ensure that the information reaches a
maximum number of potential users.
The resource management community constitutes a large and influential audience for
LUHNA. Decisions affecting the way that resources are managed in the future can and
should be informed by an historical perspective. LUHNA should provide managers with
the capability to query specific resource attributes to see how they have changed through
time.
A. Pilot Project
NBS (which became the Biological Resource Division (BRD) of USGS on October 1,
1996) and NASA intend to sponsor a handful of pilot projects that, collectively, will
illustrate the types of data available, novel analytical techniques, and the diversity of
questions that can be addressed by such analyses. Products will be developed in a format
that is understandable to a wide audience, and they will focus on issues of broad interest
to the American public.
It is expected that much of this material will be in the form of map-based data products
and graphical illustration of patterns and trends. The technical tools and analyses used
to generate the results will be referenced to scientifically credible methodologies.
Graphic and data products will be accompanied by a concise textual treatment of the
work, covering the purpose, data sources, methods, results, and interpretation.
Projects selected for funding should be complementary and should demonstrate the
scope of questions that can be addressed by an expanded LUHNA program. The goal is
to present a diversity of temporal and spatial scales and the different insights that are
provided by a variety of approaches. Candidate projects may range from low resolution,
extensive time slice analyses, based in part on paleoecological data, to more
contemporary analyses derived from recent remote sensing technology.
These products will be incorporated into a synthesis document that will serve as a
demonstration of the LUHNA concept and a vehicle for promoting a larger, more
comprehensive research initiative that will strive for a continent-wide perspective (see
below.) Delivered products need not be in final presentation form, but all data analysis
and map composition should be complete. BRD's GIS and publication capabilities will
be used to standardize presentation and integrate products, subject to the approval of the
principal investigators.
Example Pilot Projects Themes
- Spatially-nested analyses to determine how inferences change as spatial resolution
is changed, and to demonstrate the value of a hierarchical, nested analysis.
- Coupling of land cover changes to land use changes so as to clearly identify
causation.
- The relationships between socio-cultural traditions and their effects on
contemporary patterns of land cover changes.
- Spatial / temporal dynamics of individual species (plant or animal) as they have
responded to changes in landscape composition and pattern.
- Analyses combining US, Canadian and Mexican data sources, so as to be inclusive
of all of North America.
- Comparison of contemporary patterns of change (space by time) relative to
patterns discerned from paleoecological data to address whether contemporary
rates of change are of such magnitude as to exceed the adaptation limits of the
biota.
Proposed Location Criteria
Projects will cover a wide range of geographic locations, ecosystem types, and
disturbance regimes, from landscapes driven by natural processes to those transformed by
human activities. Some possible criteria include:
- Landscapes that have been heavily impacted by human use and have a long
history of available data.
- Landscapes currently experiencing rapid change as a consequence of human-
induced or natural disturbance phenomena.
- Representative locations that show historical trends in the spread of human
influence, such as the East to West wave of settlement by northern Europeans.
- Locations where data have already been compiled, and the pilot project funds
could be easily added to an existing, ongoing project.
B. Concept Paper
The primary purpose of the publication is to illustrate the LUHNA concept and propose
the production of a comprehensive history of land use and land cover change for North
America. The publication will demonstrate the educational and public policy value of a
Land Use History and convey the utility of such a history in guiding future resource
management decisions. In addition to providing a conceptual foundation for such an
expanded effort, the paper will identify essential components of LUHNA, such as the
ability to make robust comparisons between locations and over time. Further, it will
identify the major areas of new research needed to integrate approaches taken by
different disciplines, such as anthropology, environmental history, ecology, and remote
sensing.
The targeted audience will be potential sources of funding for an expanded LUHNA
effort. In addition, the publication will strive to convey the value of LUHNA to policy
makers, educators, and lay readers in ecology/environment, anthropology, history,
geography, public policy. The format will be suggestive of an atlas, with narrative
historical sections complementing extensive maps and graphics. Two different venues,
with differing formats, will be produced simultaneously. A print version will include 30-
50 oversize pages, heavily illustrated in color. Maps will play a central role in conveying
concept and information. An electronic version will present the same information via a
peer-reviewed homepage on World Wide Web, with hypertext graphics including maps,
simulations, videos, etc. Release of both versions will be targeted for 4 July 1996.
VI. LUHNA: the Long View
Ron Pulliam suggested that NBS is an appropriate base for the preliminary phase of
LUHNA, but that over the next 6-12 months there should be continuing discussion about
the eventual, long-term home of LUHNA. It is clear that the project will require
cooperation between many partners from government agencies, academia, museums, and
non-profit organizations. NBS (currently BRD) will take an active, leading role in efforts to invigorate
and energize the LUHNA effort and to build support and partnerships with other
interest parties.
LUHNA has been initiated as a loose network of collaborating investigators that share a
common vision of the need for a better understanding of the history of North American
landscapes. A LUHNA working group, formed from workshop participants and others,
will guide development of LUHNA and will help determine LUHNA's finial domicile.
The project will benefit from new partnerships with a variety of research and educational
institutions. In addition to the research interests expressed by the workshop participants,
LUHNA might produce classroom materials demonstrating relationships between
geography and history, and it might lead to a multi-media exhibit on changing American
landscapes at the Smithsonian.
The conference concluded with a discussion of strategies for building and sustaining a
long-term, collaborative effort. The workshop participants endorsed a strategy for the
Preliminary Stage of LUHNA that involves the support of pilot projects and the
publication of a concept paper that will demonstrate the value of an expanded LUHNA
effort. All pledged to reach out to their colleagues and to participate in the continuing
dialogue as the project evolves.
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