Natural And Social Science Interactions: Understanding Global Change

Launch of 'US Global change research program'

Discuss about the Natural and Social Science Interactions.

According to Mooney, Duraiappah, and Larigauderie (2013), although the existence of poor integration of social and natural science is seen during 1980’s, there has been several types of the positive moves observed in the recent times related to the global change programs. The major incorporations related to the global change was seen in terms of the launch of “US Global change research program”. This has provided several pathways and guideline to address the different types of the issues relating to the activities affecting the process, which are required to understand the overall role of social science is in understanding the nature, drivers and consequences of environmental change.

The understanding of the long-term ecosystem research and monitoring process needs to incorporate the four major areas to understand the full potential of the designated approach. The first key area where the progress needs to be made is related to understand the full potential of the long-term ecosystem research progress in terms of assessing the increase in the scope and the variety in the operational range of the study. The second progress must ensure that progress is seen in form of greater integration of research monitoring, modelling, palaeoecological reconstruction which is aimed towards the remote sensing and creation of the broad scale techniques to warn in advance regarding the changes which are expected in the environment. The progress which is to be made  in the third area is related to the  various types of interdisciplinary approach which focuses on the approaches which are made towards environmental and social science expertise. The third important factor is also seen as important component in understanding the factor responsible for the determination and vulnerability of the nature’s society system required for the change. The fourth key development area should focus on better usage of long-term ecosystem research and monitoring process to inform the guidance for the sustainability and the guidance required to the policy makers and to the public in general.

The two-view framework prepared for the report based on the global change prepared in a report published by Bretherton in the year 1988. The first view was seen as a view was seen as changes in global changes, which took place over thousand to million years, which involved the relevant process related to tracking of the movement and the significant processes such as the changes in the tectonic and variability driver related to the application, of the solar energy. The second view was directly related to understanding of the different type of the concepts was related to the view over the decades to centuries. In this the human activities were viewed as an important source of the changes, which were considered because of the various types of the changes as result of the changes in the human activities over the decades and centuries. The figure given below shown the conceptual model of the functioning system in the times scales used for decades to centuries, in this the human forces are identified. The figure given below rightly identifies the various types of important driving forces, which is required for the different types of the conceptualization process in the subsequent Earth system.

Four key areas for understanding long-term ecosystem research

Figure 1: Conceptual model of functioning of the earth system

(Source: Mooney, Duraiappah, and Larigauderie 2013)

For example, at present it has been observed that the two main bodies emphasizing on the international research agenda of social sciences in global change are seen in form of teh existence of the bodies such as “International Social Science Council (ISSC)” and Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change (IHDP), which is also sponsored by ISSU. It has been observed that both the bodies are involved in making a significant amount of changes related to revising of the different types of programs, which are required for making significant amount of changes required to put an augmented focus on the implementation of the programs to greater degree. This is done to curb the different types of the problems related to the global change research.

The main role of the social science is seen in form of the usage and the framing of the questions relevant to the questions and the agendas prepared within the social sciences. It has been seen that social science can contribute by assessment, synthesis and application of different types of the pre applied academic findings related to the relevant topics. It has been further seen that the acknowledgement of the discussion related to the societal change related to the transitional developments, which is aimed towards sustainability, and the various types of the concepts related to green economy. The acknowledgement of the social science is further seen in form of the application of the wide range of techniques which requires broader range of discussions required for the discussions which is to be made in the various types of associated areas with the desired endpoints.

The main aim of the study is to know about the issues faced from reviewing of geo- spatial differences in the aerial imagery for the assessment of changes in the land cover change. The study related to the review of the a application and relevance of the findings of vegetation in Australia has further considered the calibration of the vegetation attributes based on the aerial photography, in which the different types of fields, of the study are reviewed in detail. The discussions of the limitations are mainly observed in terms of the recording of the aerial photography in digital format and standardization image contrast and rectification. The main incidences of the issues are observed in terms of the circumvention of the various types of the application of manual techniques. The main problem is observed in terms of the varying degree between the texture of the crowns of the trees and ground remains (Engelbrecht and Kemp 2015).

Two-view framework for understanding global changes

The overall experience has shown that the aerial photography has been able to outperform by radar and assessment stand volumes. The photographs were seen to be outperforming in the radar through the aerial photography in the discrimination in the tree height. The limitations of the potential power of the aerial photography was seen in form of the issues are observed related to the circumvention of the various types of the application of manual techniques. The issues are problem is observed in terms of the varying degree between the texture of the crowns of the trees and ground remains. Although the aerial imagery has shown enormous amount of potential on the assessment of biomass in the specific areas, the implementation cost of such a technique is observed to be relatively expensive. It has been further observed that the algometric model is not observed to be precise enough in depicting the relationship between the difference in the volumes and dimensions which shows the individual difference in the height of the trees. In addition to this the various types of the foresters has taken several initiatives to calibrate manual techniques in order to assess stem densities procured from a large scale photography (Niraula et al.2013).

For example, in the year 1987 in was demonstrated by Needham and Smith demonstrated that the net count of the stems in the lobby pine plantations. It was observed to be 1:2750 photographs over estimates field counts by only 1.4% and they were further able to record 81% of the trees and shrubs in the region of the riparian woodlands from 1:10000 ratio of the aerial photography. Another instance of study depicted a smaller scale of the photos with 1:15840 photos found in the overall aerial assessments. The major limitation was observed with aerial assessments with stem density of approximately 10% lesser than the field assessment (Stockdale et al. 2015). 

In addition to this the impact of limitations of the aerial photography  are also seen far beyond the application in the vegetation. The various types of the limitations are also prevalent in areas of sensor media characteristics especially used during the middle of 1860’s. The aerial pictures produced after the exposure in the solar energy from the earth are often involved in depicting in a colour infrared (referred to as false colour). In this case the photos closer to light reflected from the scene appears as red, blue appears as black, green as blue and red appears as green. This is particularly detrimental in the analysis of the pattern of growth of diseased vegetation. Due to the changing textures in the photographs, it is often difficult to assess the areas of the healthy vegetation. The changes in the color pattern with relevance to the aforementioned are shown below as follows:

The role of Social Science in framing research questions

Figure 2: Oblique coloured infrared aerial image of Niagara Falls

(Source: ERG Information Services 2016)

It has been further observed that the main issues with respect to the automated analysis of the texture should be relevant to the application of suitable, procedure related to the application of the procedures. These procedures have been found to be applicable for the identification of the various types of the procedures in order to identify and positioning of the targeted regions within the frame of the study (Fs.fed.us. 2016).

The overall analysis of the difficulties of assessing the land covers change using aerial imagery has clearly depicted that the problems are associated with assessing more than the pattern of the vegetation. It has been further observed that the significant implications for the associated are more than scale of images and the issue of contrast differences between images sets. It has been observed that the main issue has been observed in form of recording of the aerial imagery in digital form and standardization of image contrast and rectification. Furthermore, Circumvention of the various types of the application of manual techniques and the varying degree of difference between the texture of the crowns of the trees and ground remains are seen are major problem. In addition to this, the aerial pictures produced after the exposure in the solar energy from the earth are often involved in depicting in a colour infrared (referred to as false colour).

References

Catalan, J., Pla-Rabés, S., Wolfe, A.P., Smol, J.P., Rühland, K.M., Anderson, N.J., Kopáček, J., Stuchlík, E., Schmidt, R., Koinig, K.A. and Camarero, L., 2013. Global change revealed by palaeolimnological records from remote lakes: a review. Journal of Paleolimnology, 49(3), pp.513-535.

Engelbrecht, J. and Kemp, J., 2015. The use of Landsat and aerial photography for the assessment of coastal erosion and erosion susceptibility in False Bay, South Africa. CONSAS conference.

ERG Information Services, P. (2016). Aerial Photographs and Satellite Images. [online] Pubs.usgs.gov. Available at: https://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/AerialPhotos_SatImages/aerial.html [Accessed 3 Nov. 2016].

Fs.fed.us. (2016). [online] Available at: https://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/pubs/gtr802/Vol1/pnw_gtr802vol1_evans.pdf [Accessed 3 Nov. 2016].

Jones, K.B., Zurlini, G., Kienast, F., Petrosillo, I., Edwards, T., Wade, T.G., Li, B.L. and Zaccarelli, N., 2013. Informing landscape planning and design for sustaining ecosystem services from existing spatial patterns and knowledge. Landscape Ecology, 28(6), pp.1175-1192.

Mooney, H.A., Duraiappah, A. and Larigauderie, A., 2013. Evolution of natural and social science interactions in global change research programs. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(Supplement 1), pp.3665-3672.

Niraula, R.R., Gilani, H., Pokharel, B.K. and Qamer, F.M., 2013. Measuring impacts of community forestry program through repeat photography and satellite remote sensing in the Dolakha district of Nepal. Journal of environmental management, 126, pp.20-29.

Stockdale, C.A., Bozzini, C., Macdonald, S.E. and Higgs, E., 2015. Extracting ecological information from oblique angle terrestrial landscape photographs: Performance evaluation of the WSL Monoplotting Tool. Applied Geography, 63, pp.315-325.

Unfccc.int. (2016). [online] Available at: https://unfccc.int/files/methods_and_science/research_and_systematic_observation/application/pdf/21_rogers,_ihdp_social_sciences_contributions.pdf [Accessed 3 Nov. 2016].