REU Site: Land Change and Vulnerability Studies in New England: The Human-Environment Regional Observatory (HERO)

人类对地球表面的改变代表了地球上最重要的累积全球环境变化之一。在美国等国家，这一过程主要表现为郊区化。我们对郊区化的具体原因和后果的理解是有限的，因为我们也缺乏对地点、范围、时间和变化速度的系统基线描述，这些变化被怀疑是重要的过程。郊区化是一种未被充分研究的景观变化形式。这些知识差距正越来越多地被“土地变化”和“脆弱性”评估或对这一过程及其对利益相关者的重要性的综合研究所填补。这个REU站点项目将建立在9年成功的基础上，通过人类环境区域观测站（HERO）计划吸引本科生研究人员，该计划采用REU站点方法。智力价值：提出了两个研究方向。森林变化监测流将产生由异质物种组合和所有权群体主导的景观（马萨诸塞州）的空间和时间森林组成变化的有效措施。这一流程也将有助于“最佳实践”。遥感应用的文献，通过阐明与构建和维护一个长期的、半自动化的基于卫星图像的森林监测项目相关的挑战和机遇。脆弱性评估流将使用遥感、统计和调查分析技术，研究波士顿郊区土地覆盖变化的社会原因和后果以及对这些变化的反应。这两个研究流派的研究成果将为土地利用环境、郊区研究、景观生态学和地理信息科学的实质性和方法论文献做出贡献。更广泛的影响：这里提出的研究将产生显著的结果，为从业人员和郊区社区提供资源，这些社区正在经历与他们的发展模式相关的快速变化；将为学术和利益相关者（例如，USFS， NASA，联邦/州/市/社区团体，民选官员）的受众制作出版物。本科生将全面参与现有研究设计的实施和未来研究的设计。这些学生将受益于与HERO MA &amp；博士生作为研究导师的互动。将进行严格的两部分评估。私立学院致力于通过测试新的招聘方法来提高多样性，从而进一步成功地吸引来自代表性不足群体的学生。HERO将通过在独立但相关的NSF-CNH资助下的现有努力与K-12社区和科学记者密切结合。

Human alterations of the earth's surface represent one of the planet's most significant cumulative global environmental changes. In countries such as the US this process manifests principally as suburbanization. Our understanding of the specific causes and consequences of suburbanization -- an under-studied form of landscape change -- is limited because we also lack a systematic baseline description of the location, extent, timing, and rates of the changes where the process is suspected to be important. These knowledge gaps are increasingly being filled by "land change" and "vulnerability" assessments, or the integrated studies of the process, and why it matters to stakeholders. This REU Site project will build on 9 years of success engaging undergraduate researchers through the Human-Environment Regional Observatory (HERO) program, which operates on the REU Site approach. Intellectual Merit: Two research streams are proposed. The Forest Change Monitoring stream will produce validated measures of spatial & temporal forest composition changes in a landscape (Massachusetts) dominated by heterogeneous species assemblages and ownership groups. This stream will also contribute to the ?best-practices? literature for remote sensing applications, by articulating challenges and opportunities associated with constructing and maintaining a long-term, semi-automated satellite imagery-based forest monitoring program. The Vulnerability Assessment stream will examine the social causes and consequences of, and responses to, land-cover changes in the suburban Boston area, using remote sensing, statistical, and survey analytical techniques. Research products from both research streams will contribute to both substantive and methodological literatures on land use-environment, suburban studies, landscape ecology, and geographic information science.Broader Impacts: The research proposed here will produce salient results that provide resources for practitioners and suburban communities experiencing rapid changes associated with their development patterns; publications will be produced for both scholarly and stakeholder (e.g., USFS, NASA, federal/state/municipal/community groups, elected officials) audiences. Undergraduate students will be integrally involved in the implementation of established research design and in the design of future research. These students will benefit from interacting with HERO MA & PhD students serving as research mentors. A rigorous two-part assessment will be conducted. The PIs are committed to furthering their successes engaging students from underrepresented groups by testing new methods for recruiting to enhance diversity. HERO will be closely integrated with K-12 communities and science journalists through existing efforts under separate but related NSF-CNH funding.