Ecological Forecasting for Protected Area Management
Forrest
Melton, California State University Monterey Bay, fmelton@arc.nasa.gov
(Presenting)
Rama
Nemani, NASA Ames Research Center, rama.nemani@nasa.gov
Petr
Votava, California State University Monterey Bay, pvotava@arc.nasa.gov
Andrew
Michaelis, California State University Monterey Bay, amichaelis@arc.nsaa.gov
Matthew
Voss, Univ. of Iowa, matthew.voss@gmail.com
Christina
Tague, UC Santa Barbara, ctague@mail.sdsu.edu
U.S. National Parks and other protected areas internationally are subject to increasing pressure from environmental change within and adjacent to park boundaries. Despite great interest in these areas and the fact that some U.S. parks receive as many as 3.5 million visitors per year, protected areas are often sparsely instrumented, making it difficult for resource managers to quickly identify trends and changes in park conditions. Remote sensing and ecosystem models offer protected area managers important tools for comprehensive monitoring of ecosystem conditions and scientifically based decision-making.
With support from the NASA Applied Sciences REASoN program, the Terrestrial Observation and Prediction System (TOPS) is currently being applied to automate the production, analysis, and delivery of a suite of data products from NASA satellites and ecosystem models to assist managers of U.S. and international protected areas. TOPS uses ecosystem models to combine satellite data with ground-based observations to produce nowcasts and forecasts of ecosystem conditions. Working with NPS personnel in the U.S. and with the SERVIR team in Mesoamerica, we are utilizing TOPS to deliver data products to resource managers in near-real-time for use in operational decision-making. Data products are designed to be integrated into existing decision support systems, such as the NPS Inventory & Monitoring System. Current products include estimates of vegetation condition, ecosystem productivity, soil moisture, snow cover, fire occurrence, and others. In addition, the use of TOPS to automate the identification of trends and anomalies in ecosystem condition enables protected area managers to track park-wide conditions daily, identify changes, focus monitoring efforts, and improve decision making through infusion of NASA data.