The managed clearing: An overlooked land-cover type in urbanizing regions?

Urban ecosystem assessments increasingly rely on widely available map products, such as the U.S. Geological Service (USGS) National Land Cover Database (NLCD), and datasets that use generic classification schemes to detect and model large-scale impacts of land-cover change. However, utilizing existi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2018-02, Vol.13 (2), p.e0192822-e0192822
Main Authors: Singh, Kunwar K, Madden, Marguerite, Gray, Josh, Meentemeyer, Ross K
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural management
Agriculture
Assessments
Biology and Life Sciences
Classification
Classification schemes
Clearings (openings)
Computer and Information Sciences
Data processing
Earth Sciences
Ecological function
Ecological monitoring
Ecology and Environmental Sciences
Ecosystem assessment
Ecosystems
Environmental aspects
Environmental changes
Federal agencies
Forestry
Geography
Geological mapping
Government agencies
Heterogeneity
Image resolution
Land area
Land cover
Land use
Land use management
Landscape
Remote sensing
Roads & highways
Social Sciences
Spatial distribution
Spatial heterogeneity
Studies
Urbanization
Watershed management
Watersheds
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Summary:Urban ecosystem assessments increasingly rely on widely available map products, such as the U.S. Geological Service (USGS) National Land Cover Database (NLCD), and datasets that use generic classification schemes to detect and model large-scale impacts of land-cover change. However, utilizing existing map products or schemes without identifying relevant urban class types such as semi-natural, yet managed land areas that account for differences in ecological functions due to their pervious surfaces may severely constrain assessments. To address this gap, we introduce the managed clearings land-cover type-semi-natural, vegetated land surfaces with varying degrees of management practices-for urbanizing landscapes. We explore the extent to which managed clearings are common and spatially distributed in three rapidly urbanizing areas of the Charlanta megaregion, USA. We visually interpreted and mapped fine-scale land cover with special attention to managed clearings using 2012 U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) images within 150 randomly selected 1-km2 blocks in the cities of Atlanta, Charlotte, and Raleigh, and compared our maps with National Land Cover Database (NLCD) data. We estimated the abundance of managed clearings relative to other land use and land cover types, and the proportion of land-cover types in the NLCD that are similar to managed clearings. Our study reveals that managed clearings are the most common land cover type in these cities, covering 28% of the total sampled land area- 6.2% higher than the total area of impervious surfaces. Managed clearings, when combined with forest cover, constitutes 69% of pervious surfaces in the sampled region. We observed variability in area estimates of managed clearings between the NAIP-derived and NLCD data. This suggests using high-resolution remote sensing imagery (e.g., NAIP) instead of modifying NLCD data for improved representation of spatial heterogeneity and mapping of managed clearings in urbanizing landscapes. Our findings also demonstrate the need to more carefully consider managed clearings and their critical ecological functions in landscape- to regional-scale studies of urbanizing ecosystems.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0192822