SEAL Postdoctoral Scholar Krishna Singh has published a new paper in PLoS: The managed clearing: An overlooked land-cover type in urbanizing regions?
Developed land cover in urbanizing landscapes is not always developed. The study reveals that managed clearings – semi-natural vegetated land surfaces with varying degrees of management practices – are the most common land cover type comprising more than one-fourth of the urban composition, and when it combined with forest cover could constitute almost 70% of pervious surfaces. This study suggests the need to more carefully consider managed clearings and their critical ecological functions in landscape- to regional-scale studies of urbanizing ecosystems. This begins with using high-resolution remote sensing imagery for improved representation of spatial heterogeneity and mapping of managed clearings in urbanizing landscapes.