Remote sensing of forest cover change and ecosystem dynamics in mountain areas
(2014)
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- Authors
- Supervisors
- Vanacker , Veerle
- Abstract
- Mountain forests are covering 9 million km² of the Earth surface and represent a quarter of the Earth’s total forest cover. Their present structure, composition, and function are the consequence of environmental changes caused by natural and human disturbances. The aim of the thesis is to enhance our understanding of human-environment interactions in mountain landscapes by analysing impact and feedback loops between forest cover changes and the provision of ecosystem services. The thesis addresses human-environment interactions in three different mountain landscapes: the Ecuadorian Andes, Bhutanese Himalayas and Ethiopian Highlands. A methodological framework is developed that allows accurate forest cover, forest cover change and ecosystem service mapping based on high resolution multispectral satellite imagery. In mountain areas, soil erosion regulation and natural hazard control are two ecosystem services of primary importance. This study therefore first focuses on the interactions between forest cover change, erosion regulation and landslide hazards. Based on homogenized land cover data spanning a 50 years period, an innovative method for deriving a complete set of mountain ecosystem services is applied. Our results show that the ecosystem response to forest cover change not only depends on the magnitude but also on the direction of change. Afforestation is not necessarily leading to environmental and ecological benefits, as shown by the strong decrease in ecosystem service provision following grassland afforestation in South America.
- Affiliations
