Planning Visit: The Human Ecology of Land-Use Land-Cover Change in the Toledo District Belize- A Remote Sensing Approach

0349512 Emch这个美洲项目规划访问奖将为波特兰州立大学的Michael Emch博士和Martha Works博士提供资金，以计划与伯利兹蓬塔戈尔达托莱多发展与环境研究所的Robin科尔曼博士和William Maheia先生进行合作研究。 研究人员旨在调查伯利兹托莱多区土地利用土地覆盖（LULC）变化的原因。使用遥感方法，调查人员将随机识别已经改变的像素（即，森林砍伐或重新造林），并访问这些地点，以确定它们发生变化的原因;将向土地使用者发放一份问卷，以获得这一信息。 拟议的活动包括：（1）对初步卫星图像处理LULC变化结果进行地面实况实地调查，（2）设计和预测试用于确定LULC变化发生原因的问卷，以及（3）与整个研究团队开会讨论初步结果并设计和计划更大的项目。 了解热带森林地区的土地利用/土地覆盖变化有助于可持续的保护规划和管理。 最终，该项目将有助于记录伯利兹托莱多区在过去三十年中土地利用、土地利用变化的情况，并对发生这些变化的原因进行评估。 该项目有两个主要目标：一是衡量1975年以来森林覆盖的变化，二是开始了解这些变化发生的原因。 人类在土地利用/土地利用变化中的作用对于环境保护和管理十分重要。 通过调查南部伯利兹土地利用变化，该项目将建立在地理人类生态学理论基础上。 人们越来越认识到，环境变化及其原因在不同的环境中有很大的不同，因此理解LULC变化必须是多方面的，多尺度的，多时间的。 国际科学与工程办公室（OISE）和行为与认知科学司共同支持这次规划访问。

0349512EmchThis Americas Program Planning Visit award will provide funds to Dr. Michael Emch and Dr. Martha Works of Portland State University to plan collaborative research with Dr. Robin Coleman and Mr. William Maheia of the Toledo Institute for Development and Environment in Punta Gorda, Belize. The researchers aim to investigate the reasons for land-use land-cover (LULC) changes in the Toledo District of Belize. Using a remote sensing approach, the investigators will randomly identify pixels that have changed (i.e., deforested or reforested) and visit those locations to determine why they changed; a questionnaire will be administered to the land users to obtain this information. Proposed activities include: (1) a ground-truth field survey of preliminary satellite image processing LULC change results, (2) the design and pretest of a questionnaire that will be used to determine why LULC changes occurred, and (3) meetings with the entire research team to discuss preliminary findings and design and plan a larger project. Understanding land-use land-cover (LULC) change in areas with tropical forests can contribute to sustainable conservation planning and management. Ultimately, the project will help to document LULC change in the Toledo District, Belize during the past three decades and provide an assessment of why these changes took place. The project has two primary objectives: one, to measure changes in forest cover that occurred since 1975, and two, to begin to understand why these changes took place. The human role in LULC change is important for environmental conservation and management. By investigating LULC change in southern Belize this project will build upon geographic human ecology theories. There is a growing understanding that environmental change and its causes are very different in different settings and thus understanding LULC change must be multifaceted, multiscalar, and multitemporal. The Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE) and the Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences are jointly supporting this planning visit.