Landscape Pattern Analysis for Assessing Ecosystem Condition (eBook)

Glen Johnson is a Research Scientist with the New York State Department of Health and an Assistant Professor in the University at Albany, State University of New York, School of Public Health in Albany, New York. He holds a PhD in Quantitative Ecology, a Masters in Statistics and a Masters in Ecology. With a cross-disciplinary background, Glen has been involved with environmental issues ranging from toxicology to landscape ecology. He has since ventured into public health and currently specializes in observational epidemiological studies using large databases and spatial analysis of environmental and public health data. As part of this activity, he teaches "GIS and Public Health" each year and serves on several interagency GIS workgroups within New York State. G.P. Patil is know to everyone as "GP". He is Distinguished Professor of Mathematical and Environmental Statistics in the Department of Statistics at the Pennsylvania State University, and is a former Visiting Professor of Biostatistics at Harvard University in the Harvard School of Public Health. He has a Ph.D. in Mathematics, D.Sc. in Statistics, one Honorary Degree in Biological Sciences, and another in Letters. GP is a Fellow of American Statistical Association, Fellow of American Association of Advancement of Science, Fellow of Institute of Mathematical Statistics, Elected Member of the International Statistical Institute, Founder Fellow of the National Institute of Ecology and the Society for Medical Statistics in India. GP has been a founder of Statistical Ecology Section of International Association for Ecology and Ecological Society of America, a founder of Statistics and Environment Section of American Statistical Association, and a founder of the International Society for Risk Analysis. He is founding editor-in-chief of the international journal, Environmental and Ecological Statistics and founding director of the Penn State Center for Statistical Ecology and Environmental Statistics. He has published thirty volumes and three hundred research papers. GP has received several distinguished awards which include: Distinguished Statistical Ecologist Award of the International Association for Ecology, Distinguished Achievement Medal for Statistics and the Environment of the American Statistical Association, Distinguished Twentieth Century Service Award for Statistical Ecology and Environmental Statistics of the Ninth Lukacs Symposium, Best Paper Award of the American Fisheries Society, and lately, the Best Paper Award of the American Water Resources Association, among others. Currently, GP is principal investigator of a multi-year NSF grant for surveillance geoinformatics for hotspot detection and prioritization across geographic regions and networks for digital government in the 21st Century. The project has a dual disciplinary and cross-disciplinary thrust. You are invited to do a live case study important for your in-house work.

Contents 6
List of Figures 9
List of Tables 13
Preface 15
Acknowledgments 17
INTRODUCTION 18
METHODS FOR QUANTITATIVE CHARACTERIZATION OF LANDSCAPE PATTERN 29
ILLUSTRATIONS 39
CLASSIFYING PENNSYLVANIA WATERSHEDS ON THE BASIS OF LANDSCAPE CHARACTERISTICS 56
PREDICTABILITY OF SURFACE WATER POLLUTION IN PENNSYLVANIA USING WATERSHED-BASED LANDSCAPE MEASUREMENTS 72
PREDICTABILITY OF BIRD COMMUNITY-BASED ECOLOGICAL INTEGRITY USING LANDSCAPE VARIABLES 94
SUMMARY AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS 124
REFERENCES 130
Index 143