High-Resolution Global Land system Stratification (GLaS)

Abstract

In the last decade climate change and biodiversity decline have shaped much of the environmental research. There is a growing need for sphistacated and accurate mapping of various environmental realms such as; climate, geomorphology and ecosystems, to facilitate research in nature conservation and environmental impact and observation efforts. The purpose of this dissertation is to create a dataset that can globally encompass climactic, geomorphological and ecosystem stratifications in order to illustrate and facilitate the analysis of the relationship between these three environmental facets. The method of this study called for the intersection of three pre-existing global environmental datasets to create a representation of current land systems on a global scale. This intersection resulted in the creation of the High Resolution Global Land system Stratification (GLaS) that can serve as a tool to support further identification of smaller heterogenous land system regions within larger more homogenous zones. This framework is not only beneficial to current environmental research studies but can be used to predict future scenarios of land systems on a global scale.

Keywords: In the last decade climate change and biodiversity decline have shaped much of the environmental research. There is a growing need for sphistacated and accurate mapping of various environmental realms such as; climate, geomorphology and ecosystems, to facilitate research in nature conservation and environmental impact and observation efforts. The purpose of this dissertation is to create a dataset that can globally encompass climactic, geomorphological and ecosystem stratifications in order to illustrate and facilitate the analysis of the relationship between these three environmental facets. The method of this study called for the intersection of three pre-existing global environmental datasets to create a representation of current land systems on a global scale. This intersection resulted in the creation of the High Resolution Global Land system Stratification (GLaS) that can serve as a tool to support further identification of smaller heterogenous land system regions within larger more homogenous zones. This framework is not only beneficial to current environmental research studies but can be used to predict future scenarios of land systems on a global scale.