Scientific Research Publishing

Read  full  paper  at: http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=53553#.VMiLzyzQrzE Author(s)   Mohammad Ashraf 1 , Rabeya Nawaz 2   Affiliation(s) 1 CSIR-NET (Earth Sciences), UGC-JRF (Geography), Department of Geography, Patna University, Patna, India . 2 M. Tech 2nd Year, Centre of Mining Environment, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, India . ABSTRACT Wetlands are those landscapes which are saturated with water or covered by water either perennially or for a major part of the year. Due to transforming nature of the wetlands from aquatic to terrestrial, the related physical features are not easy to be monitored. With the recent advancement in Remote sensing technique, the feature extraction of wetland with the help of different satellite derived band algebras including Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), Modified NDWI (MNDWI), Normalized Difference Moisture Index...

Read  full  paper  at: http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=53529#.VMdL8yzQrzE Author(s)   J. Luke Boutwell * , John V. Westra Affiliation(s) Department of Agricultural Economics, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, USA . ABSTRACT Communities along the USA coast are highly vulnerable to coastal storms. Trends in population growth, climatic events and land use are likely to exacerbate future damages. Coastal management entities are faced with decisions about how to manage resources in a manner that improves environmental quality and provides the maximum benefit for coastal populations. This is particularly true along the USA coast of the Gulf of Mexico, where coastal storms are common, land loss is rapid and states are planning ambitious and costly coastal restoration projects. Many of these projects are intended to mitigate hurricane damages by using wetlands as storm buffers. The physical science literature s...

Read full paper at: http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=49169#.VJJRIcnQrzE Author(s) Christopher Potter Affiliation(s) Mail Stop 232-21, Moffett Field, USA . ABSTRACT Trends in the growing season MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) time-series were analyzed for the period from 2000 to 2010 to understand landscape-level patterns of vegetation change in ecosystems of arctic Alaska. We compared datasets for vegetation cover types, wetland cover classes, wildfire boundaries since the 1940s, permafrost type, and elevation to identify the most likely combination of factors driving regional changes in habitat quality and ecosystem productivity. ...