Humans, Climate Change, or Both Causing Land-Use Change? An Assessment with NASA’s SEDAC Datasets, GIS, and Remote Sensing Techniques

Land-Cover and Land-Use Change (LCLUC) is a dynamic process affected by the combination and mutual interaction of climatic and socioeconomic drivers. Field studies and surveys, which are typically time- and resource-consuming, have been employed by researchers to better understand LCLUC drivers. How...

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Main Authors: Alen Raad, Joseph D. White
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-03-01
Series:Urban Science
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2413-8851/9/3/76
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author Alen Raad
Joseph D. White
author_facet Alen Raad
Joseph D. White
author_sort Alen Raad
collection DOAJ
description Land-Cover and Land-Use Change (LCLUC) is a dynamic process affected by the combination and mutual interaction of climatic and socioeconomic drivers. Field studies and surveys, which are typically time- and resource-consuming, have been employed by researchers to better understand LCLUC drivers. However, remotely sensed data may provide the same trustworthy outcomes with less time and expense. This study aimed to assess the relationship between LCLUC and changes in socioeconomic and climatic factors in the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) metropolitan area, Texas, USA, between 2000 and 2020. The LCLU, socioeconomic, and climatic data were obtained from the National Land Cover Database of Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium, NASA’s Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC), and the global climate and weather data website (WorldClim), respectively. Change detection calculated from these data was used to analyze spatial and statistical relationships between LCLUC and changes in socioeconomic and climatic factors. Results showed that LCLUC was significantly predicted by population change, housing and transportation, household and disability change, socioeconomic status change, monthly average minimum temperature change, and monthly mean precipitation change. While socioeconomic factors played a predominant role in driving LCLUC in this study, the influence of climatic factors should not be overlooked, particularly in regions where climate sensitivity is more pronounced, such as arid or transitional zones. These findings highlight the importance of considering regional variability when assessing LCLUC drivers.
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spelling doaj-art-73f4b17e9a184efea4a0c91e4b1ca7122025-08-20T03:44:03ZengMDPI AGUrban Science2413-88512025-03-01937610.3390/urbansci9030076Humans, Climate Change, or Both Causing Land-Use Change? An Assessment with NASA’s SEDAC Datasets, GIS, and Remote Sensing TechniquesAlen Raad0Joseph D. White1Department of Pipeline Data, Material Records, Kinder Morgan, Houston, TX 77002, USADepartment of Biology, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798, USALand-Cover and Land-Use Change (LCLUC) is a dynamic process affected by the combination and mutual interaction of climatic and socioeconomic drivers. Field studies and surveys, which are typically time- and resource-consuming, have been employed by researchers to better understand LCLUC drivers. However, remotely sensed data may provide the same trustworthy outcomes with less time and expense. This study aimed to assess the relationship between LCLUC and changes in socioeconomic and climatic factors in the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) metropolitan area, Texas, USA, between 2000 and 2020. The LCLU, socioeconomic, and climatic data were obtained from the National Land Cover Database of Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium, NASA’s Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC), and the global climate and weather data website (WorldClim), respectively. Change detection calculated from these data was used to analyze spatial and statistical relationships between LCLUC and changes in socioeconomic and climatic factors. Results showed that LCLUC was significantly predicted by population change, housing and transportation, household and disability change, socioeconomic status change, monthly average minimum temperature change, and monthly mean precipitation change. While socioeconomic factors played a predominant role in driving LCLUC in this study, the influence of climatic factors should not be overlooked, particularly in regions where climate sensitivity is more pronounced, such as arid or transitional zones. These findings highlight the importance of considering regional variability when assessing LCLUC drivers.https://www.mdpi.com/2413-8851/9/3/76national land cover databaseNASAWorldClimchange detectionimage analysisspatial analysis
spellingShingle Alen Raad
Joseph D. White
Humans, Climate Change, or Both Causing Land-Use Change? An Assessment with NASA’s SEDAC Datasets, GIS, and Remote Sensing Techniques
Urban Science
national land cover database
NASA
WorldClim
change detection
image analysis
spatial analysis
title Humans, Climate Change, or Both Causing Land-Use Change? An Assessment with NASA’s SEDAC Datasets, GIS, and Remote Sensing Techniques
title_full Humans, Climate Change, or Both Causing Land-Use Change? An Assessment with NASA’s SEDAC Datasets, GIS, and Remote Sensing Techniques
title_fullStr Humans, Climate Change, or Both Causing Land-Use Change? An Assessment with NASA’s SEDAC Datasets, GIS, and Remote Sensing Techniques
title_full_unstemmed Humans, Climate Change, or Both Causing Land-Use Change? An Assessment with NASA’s SEDAC Datasets, GIS, and Remote Sensing Techniques
title_short Humans, Climate Change, or Both Causing Land-Use Change? An Assessment with NASA’s SEDAC Datasets, GIS, and Remote Sensing Techniques
title_sort humans climate change or both causing land use change an assessment with nasa s sedac datasets gis and remote sensing techniques
topic national land cover database
NASA
WorldClim
change detection
image analysis
spatial analysis
url https://www.mdpi.com/2413-8851/9/3/76
work_keys_str_mv AT alenraad humansclimatechangeorbothcausinglandusechangeanassessmentwithnasassedacdatasetsgisandremotesensingtechniques
AT josephdwhite humansclimatechangeorbothcausinglandusechangeanassessmentwithnasassedacdatasetsgisandremotesensingtechniques