Miguel F.Acevedo
ABSTRACTS
LANDSCAPE SCALE FOREST DYNAMICS: GIS, GAP AND TRANSITION MODELS
In:
Goodchild M.F., L.T. Steyaert, B.O. Parks M.P. Crane, C.A. Johnston,
D.R.
Maidment and S. Glendinning. GIS and Environmental Modeling:
Progress
and Research Issues. Chapter 33 pp 181-185. GIS World, Fort
Collins,
Colorado. 1995
Miguel F. Acevedo 1, Dean L. Urban 2, and Magdiel Ablan 1
1 Department of Geography and Institute of Applied Science, University
of North Texas, Denton TX 76203. 2 Department of Forest Science,
Colorado
State University, Fort Collins CO 80523
Abstract
This development illustrates the integration of state transition models
and GIS spatial capabilities to analyze forest dynamics at the
landscape
scale. The transition model (MOSAIC) is semi-markovian with
probabilities,
distributed lags and discrete time lags estimated from simulation runs
of a gap model (ZELIG) at the plot scale. This parameter estimation
procedure
assures consistency in the change of scale. Further simplification is
achieved
by using a limited number of typal species representing functional
roles
as states of the transition model. Environmental factors are stored as
GIS files and transferred to MOSAIC to adjust parameters for
simulation;
values for the states at each landscape cell are generated by MOSAIC
and
transferred to the GIS for display and analysis. The capabilities of
the
model to answer management questions at the landscape scale is
demonstrated.
Key words: forest dynamics, modeling, succession, gap, Markov,
semi-Markov,
transition, delay, simulation, ZELIG, shade-tolerant, shade-intolerant,
species roles, landscape, GIS, mosaic.
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