Summary

The focus on the consequences of land use and land cover
change at the USGS has evolved to be a principal research
area, especially as a global change. The effects of a chang-
ing planet are not limited to those caused by atmospheric and
climate changes but also to more subtle changes in land use and
land cover that impact patterns of vegetation and hydrology.
Research that advances understanding the consequences of land
use and land cover change should help to better inform policies
directed at responding to an ever changing world.

References Cited

Bames, C.A., and Roy, D.P., 2010, Radiative forcing over the
conterminous United States due to contemporary land cover
land use change and sensitivity to snow and interannual
albedo variability: Journal of Geophysical Research, v. 115,
14 p., available at Attp://dx.doi.org/10. 1029/20103G001428.

Burkett, V.R., and others, 2011, Public review draft; USGS
global change science strategy: A framework for under-
standing and responding to climate and land-use change,
US. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2011-1033, 32 p.,
available at http://pubs.usgs. gov/of/2011/1033.

Loveland, Thomas, Mahmood, Rezaul, Patel-Weynand, Toral,
Karstensen, Krista, Beckendorf, Kari, Bliss, Norman, and
Carleton, Andrew, 2012, National climate assessment
technical report on the impacts of climate and land use
and land cover change: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File
Report 2012-1155, 87 p., available at Attp://pubs.usgs.gow/
off2012/1155/.

National Agriculture Imagery Program, 2012, Information
sheet: U.S. Department of Agriculture, available at
http:/wwwefsa.usda.gow/Internet/FSA_File/naip_2012_

infosheet.pdf,

Slonecker, E.T., Milheim, L.E., Roig-Silva, C.M., Malizia,
AR., Marr, D.A., and Fisher, G.B., 2012, Landscape
consequences of natural gas extraction in Bradford and
Washington Counties, Pennsylvania, 2004-2010:

U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2012-1154,
36 p., available at hitp://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2012/1154/.

Contacts

E. Terrence Slonecker
U.S. Geological Survey
12201 Sunrise Valley Drive
Reston, VA 20192
tslonecker@usgs.gov

Christopher Barnes

ARTS, Contractor to the U.S. Geological Survey

Earth Resources Observation and Science
(EROS) Center

Sioux Falls, SD 57198

barnes@usgs.gov

Krista Karstensen

U.S. Geological Survey

Earth Resources Observation and Science
(EROS) Center

Sioux Falls, SD 57198

kkarstensen@usgs. gov

Lesley Milheim

U.S. Geological Survey
12201 Sunrise Valley Drive
Reston, VA 20192
Imilheim@usgs.gov

Coral Roig-Silva

U.S. Geological Survey
12201 Sunrise Valley Drive
Reston, VA 20192
croig@usgs.gov

General information about the USGS Climate and Land Use
Change Research and Development Program is
available online at http:/www.usgs.gov/climate_landuse/.


ZUSGS

science for a changing world

Consequences of Land Use and Land Cover Change

Introduction

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Climate and Land

Use Change Mission Area is one of seven USGS mission areas
that focuses on making substantial scientific “...contributions to
understanding how Earth systems interact, respond to, and cause
global change” (Burkett and others, 2011). Using satellite and
other remotely sensed data, USGS scientists monitor pattems of
land cover change over space and time at regional, national, and
global scales. These data are analyzed to understand the causes

and consequences of changing land cover, such as economic
impacts, effects on water quality and availability, the spread of
invasive species, habitats and biodiversity, carbon fluctuations,
and climate variability.

USGS scientists are among the leaders in the study of land
cover, which is a term that generally refers to the vegetation and
artificial structures that cover the land surface. Examples of land
cover inchide forests ‘slands, wetlands, water, crops, and
buildings. Land use involves human activities that take place on

the land. For example, “grass” is a /and cover, whereas pasture
and recreational parks are land uses that procuce a cover of grass.

Biogeochemical —

Land cover change caused by
urban development and the
logging of forests, for example,
can affect the global carbon
budget and have long-term
climatic impacts.

Energy Exchange —
Land cover change
can alter vegetative
transpiration and
surface hydrology,
which collectively can
determine the parti-
tioning of surface heat
into latent (hidden) and
sensible (measurable)
heat fluctuations.

Why Study Consequences of Land Use
and Land Cover Change?

Land cover is influenced by changing natural envi-
ronmental conditions and human activities. Distinguishing
changes in land cover due to natural variability as compared
to human activities requires understanding how natural and
human influences interact. Assessing the consequences of
changes in land use and land cover begins with interdisciplin-
what processes
are causing the changes, and what the impacts of changes in

ary knowledge of what changes are occurrin

land use and land cover have been or may be

Changes in land cover can influence climate and climate,
in turn, can influence land use and land cover. These land
cover changes affect weather and climate variability by
altering biophysical, biogeochemical, and energy exchange
process

at local, regional, and global scales.

Biophysical —

Land cover change can modify
the reflectance of the land
surface, determining the
fraction of the Sun’s energy
absorbed by the surface

and thus affecting heat and
moisture fluctuations to the
atmosphere.

US. Department of the Interior
US. Geological Survey

Fact Sheet 2013-3010
March 2013,


While land change is local in origin, it can have regional
and global consequences. USGS scientists use the best land
cover information at multiple scales over space and time to
understand land cover change and assess the impacts and extent
of land change on the Earth.

The following three projects are examples of USGS scien-
tists investigating consequences of land change.

Land Cover and the Earth's Energy Budget

It is well established that land use and land cover practices
affect Earth surface properties, including albedo. Albedo affects
the Earth's energy budget by controlling how much incoming
solar radiation is absorbed and reflected by the Earth’s surface
back into space (fig. 1). Fresh snow has a high albedo (high
reflection), whereas vegetated surfaces typically have low
albedos (low reflection) due to their photosynthetic proper-
ties. The term radiative forcing is used to describe the effect
of land cover albedo change on the Earth’s energy budget. For
example, a positive radiative forcing warms the Earth’s surface
(low reflection), while a negative forcing cools the surface
(high reflection).

Using land use and land cover change data from Landsat,
USGS scientists and collaborators studied the impact of land
use and land cover change from 1973 to 2000 on surface albedo
and radiative forcing across the conterminous United States.
They have found that radiative forcing due to land change
may be underestimated when spatially and temporally explicit

Figure 1.

datasets are not used. Further, radiative forcing due to recent
(1973-2000) land cover albedo change varies in magnitude
across the conterminous United States, with the most cooling
due to forest loss and the most warming due to conversion of
agriculture to other land use and land cover types (Barnes and
Roy, 2010). Potential future impacts (2000 to 2050) of projected
change in land cover albedo are currently being investigated
This research makes an important contribution to quantifying
the role of land change on the climate system and underscores
the need for repeat, coast-to-coast, spatially explicit national
land cover mapping.

Effects of Land Cover Change on Hydrology

Interactions between climate and land systems are as
unique as the regional and sectorial driving forces behind them
(Loveland and others, 2012
how current and future land change may alter environmental
processes by analyzing (1) primary contemporary trends in
land change (use, cover, and condition), (2) land use and land

. Researchers are investigating

cover sectors and geographic regions that are most affected by
weather and climate variability, and (3) how land use practices
are adapting to climate change. These studies will contribute

to future land management strategies that may require methods
that incorporate an evaluation of how climate and land change
effects can combine to influence a wide range of social and eco-
nomic factors, as well as ecological factors such as ecosystem
services and effects on hydrologic systems.

Earth’s albedo
(average) 31%

Albedo is the fraction of the Sun's energy reflected from the Earth's

surface and its atmosphere. The amount of energy that is absorbed, emitted, or
reflected varies geographically and affects the Earth’s climate system in such a way
as to cause fluctuations in temperature, winds, ocean currents, and precipitation.

Illustration by Sarah Jenkins.


This research effort is also contributing to the development
of a framework for ongoing national assessments. For example,
USGS scientists are currently analyzing geographic frameworks
in conjunction with hydroclimatic research to further understand
the links between climate, land cover change, and hydrology
by analyzing trends in maximum streamflows (fig. 2A and 2B)
(Robert Holmes, USGS, written commun., 2009)

Characterizing land change and hydrologic trends will help
determine the effect of urbanization on flood peaks and provide
more accurate and relevant estimates of the expected frequency
of floods.

Land Cover Change due to Hydrocarbon Extraction

High demands in energy resources, especially for cleaner
burning energy, coupled with the relatively recent technological
advances in accessing hydrocarbon-rich geologic formations,
has led to an increased effort to locate and extract natural gas
from various sources around the country. One of those forma-
tions, the Marcellus Shale, is currently the focus of extensive
drilling and production in the Allegheny Plateau, extending
from New York to West Virginia

Exploration and extraction of natural gas in Marcellus
Shale result in a unique land surface that alters patterns on
the landscape, particularly forests. Using high spatial resolu-
tion imagery from the National Agriculture Imagery Program
(National Agriculture Imagery Program, 2012), USGS scientists
are mapping access roads, gas drilling pads, and pipelines to
examine changes in local habitat, water quality, and landscape
quality as a result of natural gas extraction (fig. 3). Changing

Figure2A. Flooding across U.S. Highway 60 in the
Ohio River overflow area, east of Cairo, Illinois, in 2011.
Photograph by Todd Koenig, USGS.

land use has the potential to have serious, sometimes unfore- Figure2z. Birds Point-New Madrid Floodway located
seen, effects on our lives and well-being. Developing a better on the west bank ofthe Mississinp# River in'southeast
understanding of the unintended consequences of land use and Missouri in 2011. Photograph by Todd Koenig, USGS.

land cover changes, so that informed decisions can be made,
is the objective of this USGS research (Slonecker and others,
2012).

Figure 3. Aforested
landscape in Pennsylvania
(left) illustrating the spatial
distribution of roads, well
pads, and pipelines (in

red on right) related to
hydrocarbon exploration
and development.

Photo from the National
Agriculture Imagery
Program (2012).