Recent research has utilized U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Cropland Data Layers (CDL) to provide evidence on transitioning land use in the U.S. Western Corn Belt (WCB) (Wright and Wimberly 2013, Johnston 2014). The westward expansion of the WCB has garnered much attention over the past decade. An important concern is that the expanding corn and soybean areas are replacing traditionally native grasslands in the Prairie Pothole Region. The region’s remaining grasslands are of great value since they support biodiversity by sustaining waterfowl nesting habitats and helping to conserve prairie ecosystems. However, these valuable natural resources have been subjected to rapid conversions for use in crop agriculture. High commodity prices, agricultural risk management policies, technological innovations and climate change are possible drivers of land use change. In order to study how these changes correlate with possible causal factors we need robust spatial and temporal measures of land use change in the area.
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/hongli-hennessy/71/
This proceeding is published as Arora, Gaurav, Wolter, Peter T., Feng, H., and D.A. Hennessy. “Characterizing land use changes in the Dakotas using historical satellite sensor data: 1984-2015." Pages 9-11 in (L. Knuffman, ed.) 2016. America’s Grasslands Conference: Partnerships for Grassland Conservation. Proceedings of the 3rd Biennial Conference on the Conservation of America’s Grasslands. September 29-October 1, 2015, Fort Collins, CO. Washington, DC: National Wildlife Federation. Posted with permission.