Date of Award

3-2016

Document Type

Masters Capstone Project

Degree Name

M.S. in Geographic Information Science

Organizational Unit

College of Natural Science and Mathematics, Geography and the Environment

First Advisor

Michael A. O'Neal

Second Advisor

Steven Hick

Keywords

Deforestation, Remote sensing, Climate modeling, Spectral mixture analysis, Surface air temperature, Stand density, Topographic shade, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Washington

Abstract

Changes in areal extent of land cover types may lead to alterations in the surface energy budget that contribute to anthropogenic climate forcing. This study examines the effects of deforestation in the Cascade Range on local temperature. Temperature sensors were installed in 14 forest stands, taking measurements for one year. Estimated tree age, circumference, and species were recorded to calculate stand density index. Satellite imagery was used to calculate shade fraction from spectral mixture analysis, which is a proxy for canopy structure and density. These data were used to construct seasonal cycles of temperature to model variation with stand density and elevation. Maximum daily temperatures were 3.6°C higher in clearcut than mature forests in summer and 2.6°C higher in winter.

Copyright Date

3-10-2016

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Monica R. H. Jasper

Provenance

Received from author

File Format

application/pdf

Language

English (eng)

Extent

43 pgs

File Size

2.0 MB

Download



Share

COinS