Project Funding: 2015 - 2017

NRA: 2013 NASA: Land Cover / Land Use Change   

Funded by NASA

Abstract:
We are responding to element 1 of the ROSES-2013 LCLUC solicitation, LCLUC in mountainous regions. The proposed work builds on what we have learned in our currently funded LCLUC project (finishing up in mid-2014). This work suggests both climate and land-use change processes are threatening Andean wetlands, and the livelihoods dependent on them. The goal of this proposal is to further clarify the relative importance of these factors (climate/physical landcover and socioeconomic/land-use) on how these systems are changing. We propose to assess their current regional extent and health with satellite data, their past and future climate environments with climate models and model output, and the drivers of current land-use and land-use change with socioeconomic surveys. We will conduct this across the altiplano region extending from the cordillera Blanca in Peru to Sajama in Boliva. This will provide essential information on how these systems are reacting to and being acted upon by changes in climate and land-use pressures. By integrating the results from these components, we will be able to suggest future trajectories for these systems, across the tropical Andes of Bolivia and Peru. Our methods and results may provide useful insights for analysis of mountain systems elsewhere.