New Tools for Modern Land Management Decisions
In an era of rapid land use changes and shifting climates, it is imperative that land managers and policymakers have actionable and current information available for decision processes. In this work, we seek to meet these needs through new data products and decision support tools built on digital soil mapping, new vegetation cover maps, agency inventory and monitoring data sets, and cutting-edge analytical frameworks. By building on large databases of field observations, available remote sensing, and cloud computing, we are able to create new, decision-relevant information more quickly.
Ecological Site Group maps for the Upper Colorado River Basin
What determines the effectiveness of Pinyon-Juniper clearing treatments?
Background & Importance
An opportunity for achieving this is through analysis of past land management and actions. Here, we apply a technique from the econometric literature that can account for these unplanned actions, called the synthetic control, to assess landscape change and treatment effectiveness.
It is also important to connect existing and new scientific information to lands where decisions are being made. As an extension of our soil mapping work, we and partners from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) are mapping broad land units that share similar land potential & ecological dynamics and then developing synthesis information for the mapped units, including decision support tools.
Our current focus for these efforts is the Upper Colorado River Basin and fire fuels management, sage grouse habitats, and energy development.
Soil Property and Class Maps of the Conterminous United States at 100-Meter Spatial Resolution
30m Resolution soil maps for the Colorado River Basin
Below are other science projects associated with this research.
Below are USGS data associated with this research.
Below are publications associated with this research.
Digital mapping of ecological land units using a nationally scalable modeling framework
Salinity yield modeling of the Upper Colorado River Basin using 30-meter resolution soil maps and random forests
Relative prediction intervals reveal larger uncertainty in 3D approaches to predictive digital soil mapping of soil properties with legacy data
POLARIS properties: 30-meter probabilistic maps of soil properties over the contiguous United States
Soil property and class maps of the conterminous United States at 100-meter spatial resolution
Approaches for improving field soil identification
Elevated aeolian sediment transport on the Colorado Plateau, USA: The role of grazing, vehicle disturbance, and increasing aridity
Landsat time series analysis of fractional plant cover changes on abandoned energy development sites
Identifying optimal remotely-sensed variables for ecosystem monitoring in Colorado Plateau drylands
Disturbance automated reference toolset (DART): Assessing patterns in ecological recovery from energy development on the Colorado Plateau
Generalizing ecological site concepts of the Colorado Plateau for landscape-level applications
The automated reference toolset: A soil-geomorphic ecological potential matching algorithm
Below are the partners associated with this research.
In an era of rapid land use changes and shifting climates, it is imperative that land managers and policymakers have actionable and current information available for decision processes. In this work, we seek to meet these needs through new data products and decision support tools built on digital soil mapping, new vegetation cover maps, agency inventory and monitoring data sets, and cutting-edge analytical frameworks. By building on large databases of field observations, available remote sensing, and cloud computing, we are able to create new, decision-relevant information more quickly.
Ecological Site Group maps for the Upper Colorado River Basin
What determines the effectiveness of Pinyon-Juniper clearing treatments?
Background & Importance
An opportunity for achieving this is through analysis of past land management and actions. Here, we apply a technique from the econometric literature that can account for these unplanned actions, called the synthetic control, to assess landscape change and treatment effectiveness.
It is also important to connect existing and new scientific information to lands where decisions are being made. As an extension of our soil mapping work, we and partners from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) are mapping broad land units that share similar land potential & ecological dynamics and then developing synthesis information for the mapped units, including decision support tools.
Our current focus for these efforts is the Upper Colorado River Basin and fire fuels management, sage grouse habitats, and energy development.
Soil Property and Class Maps of the Conterminous United States at 100-Meter Spatial Resolution
30m Resolution soil maps for the Colorado River Basin
Below are other science projects associated with this research.
Below are USGS data associated with this research.
Below are publications associated with this research.
Digital mapping of ecological land units using a nationally scalable modeling framework
Salinity yield modeling of the Upper Colorado River Basin using 30-meter resolution soil maps and random forests
Relative prediction intervals reveal larger uncertainty in 3D approaches to predictive digital soil mapping of soil properties with legacy data
POLARIS properties: 30-meter probabilistic maps of soil properties over the contiguous United States
Soil property and class maps of the conterminous United States at 100-meter spatial resolution
Approaches for improving field soil identification
Elevated aeolian sediment transport on the Colorado Plateau, USA: The role of grazing, vehicle disturbance, and increasing aridity
Landsat time series analysis of fractional plant cover changes on abandoned energy development sites
Identifying optimal remotely-sensed variables for ecosystem monitoring in Colorado Plateau drylands
Disturbance automated reference toolset (DART): Assessing patterns in ecological recovery from energy development on the Colorado Plateau
Generalizing ecological site concepts of the Colorado Plateau for landscape-level applications
The automated reference toolset: A soil-geomorphic ecological potential matching algorithm
Below are the partners associated with this research.