| |
Landscape Monitoring (ILM) Program: Integrating the Human Dimension
|
|
We are living in a period of unprecedented environmental change. Determining the impacts of human
actions on natural processes and predicting their effects is critical to ensuring a sustainable future for all,
both economically and ecologically. Patterns of change observed on the landscape result from both natural
processes and policy, regulatory and management decisions of individual Federal, State, county, and private
organizations. Monitoring change at the landscape level provides a window to view ecosystem responses that
could not be detected at the small site scale. The USGS ILM project harnesses the talents of scientists of from
all the USGS disciplines to better understand and respond to ecosystem change in four pilot areas, the Great
Basin, Puget Sound, Prairie Potholes, and Mississippi Alluvial Valley.
|
|
|
Ecoregions of the Conterminous U.S. with Integrated Landscape Monitoring pilot sites shown
in red.
|
|
Landscapes comprise the intersection of the hydrosphere, geosphere, and biosphere with human communities and
needs. Understanding the processes that drive complex factors shaping landscapes requires sophisticated modeling
and monitoring. For each pilot area a model of the landscape is developed to understand the key factors affecting
the structure and condition of the landscape system and explore what conservation, restoration and remediation
activities could be implemented to protect and improve the integrity and function of the landscape. The model will
be used to identify monitoring needs and what science is needed to support these efforts
|
|
|
Human Systems Model of the Great Basin Ecoregion. The box on the left represents the key
biophysical components of the Great Basin: atmospheric system, wet ecosystems, dry ecosystems, and the biota that
inhabit the ecoregion. The box on the right represents the human social system and the physically constructed
infrastructure such as agriculture, roads, cities, power corridors, irrigation canals, and dams that sustain human
communities. The open arrow from the biophysical ecosystem to the human system represents natural capital derived
from the Great Basin ecosystem such as minerals, soil fertility, water, water purification, and biomass. The upper
open arrow represents anthropomorphic impact on the land and other human activities such as restoration and
remediation. The bottom arrow shows humans as part of the biota, self-organizing, co-adapting, and co-evolving
just like all the other species on the planet. This system is open; it organizes energy from the sun and matter
from the earth in a complex, non-entropic manner
|
Point of Contact:
Alicia Torregrosa
|
|
|
U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
