Publications by authors named "Pontus Olofsson"
A global land cover training dataset from 1984 to 2020.
Sci Data
December 2023
Article Synopsis
- State-of-the-art cloud computing platforms like Google Earth Engine (GEE) enhance the process of mapping land cover changes globally using machine learning, but high-quality training data for accurate mapping is still expensive and labor-heavy.
- To solve this, we developed a global database with nearly 2 million training units from 1984 to 2020, covering seven main and nine secondary land cover classes, using GEE and machine learning for quality and representation.
- Our database, which includes diverse datasets and reflects regional land characteristics, is useful for various fields, including land cover change studies, agriculture, forestry, hydrology, and urban development.
Article Synopsis
- Armed conflicts lead to food insecurity by causing cropland abandonment and making it hard to collect relief information.
- Satellite remote sensing can effectively gather data during these conflicts and assess food security conditions.
- Analysis of satellite images in South Sudan revealed a 16% decrease in cultivated land from 2016 to 2018, underlining the impact of war on food supply and highlighting remote sensing's importance in improving aid distribution.
Article Synopsis
- Accurately measuring, reporting, and verifying carbon emissions and sequestration from land activities is critical for reducing terrestrial carbon emissions.
- Current carbon accounting methods often overlook spatial variations and provide broad estimates rather than localized data, making it hard to monitor changes effectively.
- A new model using high-resolution Landsat data allows for precise tracking of carbon emissions and uptake in the Colombian Amazon, with a case study showing significant emissions and regenerating forest uptake from 2001 to 2015, meeting international reporting standards.
Satellite-based estimates reveal widespread forest degradation in the Amazon.
Glob Chang Biol
May 2020
Anthropogenic and natural forest disturbance cause ecological damage and carbon emissions. Forest disturbance in the Amazon occurs in the form of deforestation (conversion of forest to non-forest land covers), degradation from the extraction of forest resources, and destruction from natural events. The crucial role of the Amazon rainforest in the hydrologic cycle has even led to the speculation of a disturbance "tipping point" leading to a collapse of the tropical ecosystem.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Pathogenesis of Glenohumeral Deformity and Contracture Formation in Obstetric Brachial Plexus Palsy-A Review.
J Brachial Plex Peripher Nerve Inj
January 2019
Contractures of the shoulder joint and glenohumeral joint dysplasia are well known complications to obstetrical brachial plexus palsy. Despite extensive description of these sequelae, the exact pathogenesis remains unknown. The prevailing theory to explain the contractures and glenohumeral joint dysplasia states that upper trunk injury leads to nonuniform muscle recovery and thus imbalance between internal and external rotators of the shoulder.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNew England has lost more than 350,000 ha of forest cover since 1985, marking a reversal of a two-hundred-year trend of forest expansion. We a cellular land-cover change model to project a continuation of recent trends (1990-2010) in forest loss across six New England states from 2010 to 2060. Recent trends were estimated using a continuous change detection algorithm applied to twenty years of Landsat images.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExpansion of human settlements is an important driver of global environmental change that causes land use and land cover change (LULCC) and alters the biophysical nature of the landscape and climate. We use the state of Massachusetts, United States (U.S.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImplications of land use change on the national terrestrial carbon budget of Georgia.
Carbon Balance Manag
September 2010
Background: Globally, the loss of forests now contributes almost 20% of carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere. There is an immediate need to reduce the current rates of forest loss, and the associated release of carbon dioxide, but for many areas of the world these rates are largely unknown. The Soviet Union contained a substantial part of the world's forests and the fate of those forests and their effect on carbon dynamics remain unknown for many areas of the former Eastern Bloc.
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