Warming, Vegetation, & Remote Sensing: The Use of NDVI to Track the Influence of Climate Change on Arctic and Alpine Plant CommunitiesCharlotte Copp, Lewis and Clark CollegeThe Arctic is warming at a faster rate compared to the rest of the world and vegetation there can be used as a signal for a changing climate. In this research I ask, how will climate change alter arctic communities in Ísafjörður, Iceland and alpine communities in the White Mountains, New Hampshire? I used NDVI data to track climate responses at a global scale. I supported these findings with species observations in survey plots in the White Mountains and in Iceland. Although there a similarities in species composition in these two locations, climate change will affect them in different way. This is due to several factors including anticipated changes in climate at the local scale, land management style, and microclimatic conditions. Collectively this research suggests that effects of climate warming on plants are not homogeneous across latitudes or altitude and local management should be applied to support species conservation a the regional scale.
Refugee Camps as Climate TrapsJamon Van Den Hoek, Oregon State UniversityAs of writing, there are 19.9 million refugees under UN mandate in 126 countries who have fled war and political persecution. Despite the sheer size of this population, refugees are consistently excluded from national surveys and censuses meant to target the most marginalized, inform progress towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and improve measurements of poverty and living standards. The global refugee population is thus not only being “left behind” in pursuit of SDGs, refugees are also more likely to be trapped in intergenerational poverty and require special assistance to adapt to global environmental change, which may exacerbate the potential for economic isolation, social conflict, and economic instability. Using remote sensing, climate model, and geospatial datasets from 2000-2015, this study offers the first global assessment of camp-level environmental and climatic conditions at 922 UNHCR refugee camps in 60 countries. We find that refugee camps often share similar conditions as other settlements within a given host country, yet are consistently more isolated and, inevitably, vulnerable due to enclosure and land use policies that reflect and reinforce the securitization of refugees. Our results thus improve understanding of the potential for camps to act as ‘climate traps’ and help illuminate pathways for targeted investment in refugee livelihoods.
A Case Study of Human Ecology Mapping in Central Oregon Forests: What Public Participation GIS data can tell usAlicia Milligan and Krystle Harrell, Portland State UniversityPublic Participation GIS (PPGIS) has become increasingly important for generating socio-spatial data from users of a particular area to help influence land management and planning practices. In this case study we collected sociocultural data from users of the Deschutes and Ochoco National Forests in anticipation of updating forest plans to include human values and uses of the forest to comply with the 2012 Forest Planning Rule. This presentation will describe our development and implementation of an interactive web-mapping application which allowed data collection from a wide spectrum of forest users. Through data disaggregation by demographics and use characteristics, and employing a number of spatial analysis techniques, we are able to discover informative and distinct spatial patterns of forest visitation and activity diversity, as well as threats to the experience of specific places. The techniques described in our case study can be of use for a variety of land use planning applications where decision makers require or would benefit from an understanding of people-place relationships.
